


Zacky and the Lawyer

by rizanicole



Category: Avenged Sevenfold
Genre: F/M, Family, Friendship, Love, Music, Romance, The Stage, Tour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-08-05 03:24:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16359803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rizanicole/pseuds/rizanicole
Summary: "It was an interesting situation to be in, really. I never thought when I’d agreed to become Avenged Sevenfold’s lawyer that we’d be in this position. The guys knew they had a legal battle to fight, but refused to delay their tour to deal with the situation. The solution, which seemed obvious to them and absurd to almost everyone else?Just take your lawyer on tour with you, of course."In which Avenged Sevenfold's lawyer tries her best to do her job, stay professional, and not get too attached to anyone in the band. It all proves to be easier said than done. Zacky Vengeance x OC.





	1. Lawsuits and Bedtime Stories

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, everyone! This is the first multi-chapter story I've ever written, and it's very different from any of my other works. Still, I'm really happy with how it came out, and hope that you enjoy it, too.
> 
> All of the chapters have been written, and I'm just making small edits to them now. I'm planning to update this story once per week. In total, it'll run for 8 chapters plus an epilogue.
> 
> If you feel so inclined, please feel free to leave your feedback in the comments! I'm curious to know what people will think of this story. Thank you, and happy reading!

I tapped a pen impatiently against the notepad resting in my lap. This phone call had been going on for nearly an hour as I tried to explain our position, but the man on the other end of the line just wasn’t hearing me. I bit my lip to hold back a sigh as he launched into another explanation of something we’d already covered at least three times.

“I mean, the contract was in place, Christa. That’s not something they can just walk away from—“

“It’s absolutely something they can walk away from if working conditions are sufficiently different from when they started, Geoff,” I interrupted him, tired of dealing with this. “And the conditions _are_ different. You cannot tell me we don’t have a case.”

The man huffed in annoyance, clearly unhappy that I wasn’t going to roll over so easily. “If you all insist, I can’t stop you. But be prepared to see us in court over it.”

Though I was alone and he couldn’t see me, I smiled wryly, picturing the other lawyer’s face in front of me. “Don’t worry about us, Geoff. We will be. Call me if you come to your senses and decide you’d rather avoid the hassle.”

Without giving him a chance to answer, I took the cell phone down from my ear and tapped a button to hang up, finally letting out a heavy sigh. I ran a hand through my hair as I mulled over the conversation in my mind. To be frank, despite how long we’d talked, not much had been accomplished. They were still mad at us, and we were still mad at them. Which generally tends to be why lawsuits start in the first place.

I was broken out of my thoughts by the sound of a door opening slowly, and looked over to the entrance of the bus. Matt was there, standing on the top step with his head poking around the corner to look at me. “Can I come in?” he asked quietly, gesturing to the interior of the bus.

I nodded at him. “Yeah, I’m off the phone. Sorry it took so long. Old bastard kept saying we should just give in. I told him ‘no’.” I patted the seat beside me, scooting over slightly, and Matt walked over to the small couch.

“So, what else did he say?” Matt asked as he sat down next to me, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at me curiously. I noticed he was already wearing a bandana with his hat on backwards, looking ready to perform in tonight’s show. His black t-shirt had a signature pair of aviator sunglasses hooked over the neck, and with his stern expression and muscled arms, there was no doubt that he was intimidating. However, despite how he may have looked to someone who didn’t know him, we’d been working together long enough that I could see through it, and I was grateful to call him my friend.

I smiled at him a bit sadly. “He threatened to take us to court over it, so exactly what we thought.” I hardened my expression then. “But I’ll fight like hell to try and keep it from happening, Matt. And if it can’t be avoided, we’ll go to court and crush them.”

Matt grinned back at me, seeming to appreciate the fire in my voice. “You know we all believe in you, Christa. If anyone can get us out of this mess, it’s you. And if you can’t, well, we’ll go down fighting with you.” I couldn’t help but smile back at his words. I knew the guys wanted to avoid going to court if at all possible, but it was nice to be supported.

I rubbed my eyes then, suddenly feeling a bit tired as the past hour of arguing seemed to catch up with me. “Thanks, Matt. I’m gonna call it quits for today, though, it’s after six and no one else is gonna answer their phones. But I’ll be back at it soon.”

“Sure thing, Christa. Thanks again for all your help. You gonna come watch the show?”

I laughed, shaking my head. I loved seeing the band perform, I really did. I’d started listening to them back in college, when their music proved to be an excellent way to relieve stress. But, I’d watched from backstage the past four nights, and I was beat. “I think I’m gonna try to get an early night tonight, Matt. But thanks for the offer.”

He simply nodded. “Well, if you’re gonna be up for at least a little while longer, I’m sure Val would be glad for your company. She’s got River, Cash, and Tennessee tonight, so I think her hands are kinda full.” He chuckled at his wife’s plight of having to manage all three kids currently on tour. They were allowed to watch the show sometimes, but having them backstage was a bit hectic for everyone. Some nights, it was just easier for them to stay on the second tour bus.

I laughed lightly. “I’ll see what I can do. I’m sure Val’s better at managing them than I am, but I’d give it a shot to help her out.”

“Thanks, Christa. You never have to, you know. But if you’re trying to get your mind off other things, it might help.” He stood up from the couch then, linking his hands together and stretching his arms above his head. “I’d better get back to the guys, but I’ll see you later, okay?”

I smiled up at him and nodded back. “Sounds great, Matt. Good luck with the show tonight.” I watched him walk back across the bus and leave through the door he’d first entered, and sighed to myself again.

It was an interesting situation to be in, really. I never thought when I’d agreed to become Avenged Sevenfold’s lawyer that we’d be in this position. They used to get along with their record label just fine. But over the years, little changes had added up, and they’d made the decision to split before their most recent album. 

My job, which had previously involved only meeting with them occasionally in offices and recording studios, suddenly took a turn when the company tried to retaliate against them, wanting money for a record they had no part in producing. The guys knew they had a legal battle to fight, but refused to delay their tour to deal with the situation. The solution, which seemed obvious to them and absurd to almost everyone else?

Just take your lawyer on tour with you, of course.

And now here I was, sitting in a tour bus as the guys did a soundcheck in Chicago to prepare for tonight’s show, calling other lawyers and reviewing contracts and doing my best to get this dispute settled. It wasn’t the perfect environment to work in, if I was being honest—my desk back home was much more practical than this tour bus couch—but the guys gave me plenty of mental space to work, so it wasn’t all bad. And I had to admit, being able to go on tour with the band and their families was a pretty surreal experience, especially considering that I’d been a fan before we ever met.

I pulled myself out of reminiscing to close my notebook and put the cap back on my pen, sliding both of them underneath the couch. Matt was probably right; it would do me good to get my mind well and truly off work for a while. I didn’t really consider myself to be any good with kids, and before this tour, I wouldn’t even have said I particularly liked them as a whole. But, after meeting these three boys and spending some time with them, even my cynical mind had been forced to make an exception. They could be pretty funny. Besides, I got along well with Val, and it sounded like she could use a hand.

I left the tour bus I was in and stepped down onto the asphalt. It was a warm, sunny day in mid-June, and I squinted as I waited for my eyes to adjust to the bright light. We were parked in a secluded area behind the venue, separate from the general parking lot. Two large tour buses, and three additional trucks carrying the band’s equipment, made up most of our convoy. I couldn’t see the crew’s bus from where I was standing, but knew from experience that it would be parked closer to the backstage entrance.

I walked a short distance to the second identical tour bus, where I knew I’d find Val and the kids. I could hear voices before I even made it to the door, and couldn’t help but smile. I opened the door and walked up the stairs. As soon as I’d rounded the corner into the bus, I was immediately greeted by a shout of “Chrissiiiie!”

I looked down just in time to see a flash of blonde hair running towards me, before a set of small arms were wrapped firmly around my legs. I laughed and looked down at the tiny human who’d attached himself to me. 

“Hey there, Tennessee. What’ve you been up to today?”

“We’ve been making puzzles!” he said excitedly, large blue eyes looking up at me. He frowned then as another thought seemed to occur to him. “But, we haven’t finished them yet…”

I couldn’t help but smile again at his expressiveness. Something about the completely uninhibited emotions of these boys was endearing. Perhaps it was because my job required people to be so serious and straight-laced all the time, I mused. Just then, I heard footsteps coming from the other end of the bus.

“Hey, Christa!” Val greeted, walking into view carrying her youngest son on her hip. She had her blonde hair pulled back into a short ponytail, and I couldn’t help but wonder if it was to keep it out of her kids’ curious hands. “You done with work for the day?”

I nodded at her. “Yeah, the other lawyer’s being a real pain in the a—“ I cut myself off, remembering who I was around as I looked from one kid to the other and then back at Val. She smiled at me knowingly, not looking angry at all, and motioned for me to go on. “A real… meanie. They’re trying to threaten to take us to court, but I’ll try to make sure it doesn’t come to that.”

Val nodded, her expression becoming solemn as she shifted Cash in her arms. “I kinda figured they would. But we know you’re the best, Christa. One way or another, we’ll get through this.”

I chuckled lightly. “I don’t know that I’m that good, but I’ll do anything I can for the band and you guys.” I looked back down at the kid still attached to my legs, who seemed to be trying to pull me further into the room without much luck. I stepped forward with him carefully, and looked back up at Val. “Say, do you need any help with your puzzles? Tennessee told me you were working on some.”

Val smiled warmly. “That’d be great. They each wanted their own, and I’m having trouble keeping up with all the pieces that keep getting thrown everywhere.” She gave the boy in her arms a pointed look, but he didn’t seem to notice.

I laughed, and looked back down at the child holding on to me. “Whaddaya say, do you want to go finish that puzzle?”

He nodded emphatically, grinning at me. “Yeah!”

I spent the next few hours hanging out with Val and the boys, helping the kids put together simple puzzles and finding the stray pieces they kept tossing out of reach or accidentally sitting on. We had peanut butter and banana sandwiches for dinner, and by the time it was 8 o’clock, I could tell the three boys were starting to get sleepy.

“Hey Christa, I’m gonna go ahead and put these two to bed,” Val said, arms wrapped around the boys seated on either side of her. Cash looked like he was already asleep, and River wasn’t far behind him. “Do you mind taking care of Tennessee?”

“No problem!” I said, looking at the blonde boy next to me. He was currently making an effort to stack blocks on top of each other, but his eyelids were starting to droop, and it was clear he’d be asleep soon. I turned my body so that I was sitting facing him, as Val started to corral her family towards the bunks. “Hey, Tennessee, are you ready for bed?”

He perked up a bit at being addressed, eyes wide open once more. “Nuh-uh! I need a bedtime story first!” He looked at me expectantly, a block still held in his hand.

I laughed a bit. “Okay, then. Do you know where I can find the books?” He nodded, getting up and toddling over to a small table in the kitchen area, pointing up at it to some brightly-colored children’s books I hadn’t noticed before. I stood up and walked over to them, picking them up in my hands to examine.

“Alrighty,” I said thoughtfully, flipping through them. “We’ve got The Prince and the Dragon, The World’s Greatest Circus, Polar Bear Parade, and Billy Saves the Day,” I said. “Which one do you wanna read tonight?”

“The circus one!” he said excitedly. I smiled and sat down on the couch, putting the books beside me and holding my arms out to Tennessee. He walked over without me having to ask, and I picked him up under his arms and set him on the couch next to me.

I put the book he’d chosen in my lap and opened it to the first glossy page, starting to read. “Okay. The World’s Greatest Circus…”

I read the book aloud to Tennessee as he listened intently, pointing at the animals in the book and interrupting often to tell me what noises each of them made. By the time I got to the part where the lost elephant returned to the circus, though, I could tell he was fading fast. I kept reading softly, finishing the story. “…And all the animals put on the best show ever.” I closed the back cover of the book quietly, looking down at the kid resting against my arm. He didn’t move or react at all, and I realized that he had fallen asleep.

I set the book aside and picked him up carefully in my arms, walking back towards the bus’s bunk area. I saw that the two bunk curtains on the left side were drawn closed already; Val and Cash usually stayed together in the lower one, while River was allowed to stay on top, since they’d installed a safety rail. I walked Tennessee over to the lower bunk across from Val’s. 

He stirred slightly as I put him down, but didn’t seem to ever fully wake up. Val had already gotten him into his pajamas after dinner, so I simply tucked him in and smiled fondly, before pulling the curtain back into place. 

As I went to change into my own pajamas, I thought more about the boy I’d spent the last few hours with. He was adorable, no doubt about it. And it was great that he got to go on tour with his dad. It only made me a little sad to think that he didn’t have his mom here, the way that River and Cash had Val. My expression fell slightly at the thought.

Zack was a wonderful dad to him, and obviously loved his son so much. But still, not being with his son’s mother anymore must have been tough. And he wasn’t dating anyone else at the moment, as far as I knew. However, divorce wasn’t uncommon by any means, and that kid basically had four uncles and an aunt here in the band family who adored him. My smile returned at the thought.

Being the last one awake on the bus, I turned the lights off as I headed back to my bunk, climbing into the one above Tennessee. I slept over here with Val and the kids, while the guys stayed on the other bus. It separated Matt and Zack from their sons, but ultimately made it easier to manage sleep schedules, since the guys wouldn’t be coming in and waking up the kids late at night. And, despite the fact that I technically slept over here, I didn’t really spend much time on this bus. I would usually go over to the guys’ bus during the day to work, if they were out, or stay in my own hotel room if we’d stopped for a few days. Doing legal research in any sort of vaguely-hectic environment—which was always a guarantee with three kids running around—was nearly impossible.

Settling into the sheets of the small bed, I rolled over and closed my eyes. I could hear the sounds of the show in the distance, but we’d parked far enough away and the buses were soundproofed well enough that it wouldn’t keep anyone awake. We’d be leaving early tomorrow morning to get to our next stop, and it was time for some much-needed sleep.


	2. Green Eyes

I woke up the next morning to the feeling of the bus rumbling beneath me. I groggily rubbed at my eyes, slowly becoming aware of my surroundings, and blinked several times. I could hear hushed voices coming from the outside of my bunk. Apparently, everyone else had woken up before me.

I raised an arm to peel back the curtain slowly, light from the bus interior and the outside world hitting my face, and squinted. It was already bright outside, and I figured I must’ve slept through a good bit of the morning. I could see trees and fields rolling by through the window; it looked like we weren’t anywhere close to a major city.

“Good morning, sleeping beauty!” someone called much too peppily. I turned my face towards the voice to see Johnny sitting in the den, grinning at me. His usual mohawk was flat against his head this morning, devoid of its usual suite of styling products, and the jeans and t-shirt he was wearing made him look much more casual than he did when performing on stage. I craned my neck further to see that he was sitting with Val, Brian, and Brooks, and the four of them appeared to be drinking coffee.

I grumbled something incoherent in response to his cheery mood, before I shifted my legs over the edge of my bunk and hopped down to the floor. After making sure I had steady footing on the moving bus, I looked at the other three bunks and noticed the curtains were all pulled back. The bunks were empty. I frowned slightly, and Val, seeming to notice my confusion, provided an explanation.

“We did a kid swap this morning, Christa,” she said. “Matt and Zack are on parent duty on the band’s bus, and the rest of us decided to come over here for some peace and quiet.”

I nodded in understanding, the fog of sleep slowly fading from my mind, and walked over to the kitchen. I poured myself a mug of coffee from the pot that had been left out, and carefully carried it over to sit down next to Johnny.

“Good morning to you, too, Johnny,” I said, nudging his shoulder playfully as I finally answered his greeting. He chuckled slightly at my delayed response. “You’re almost always up before us,” he observed. “Long day yesterday?”

I nodded, taking a sip of my slightly-cooled coffee. “Yeah, lots of phone calls yesterday. And those kids can tire you out!” I exclaimed, looking over at Val, who nodded knowingly. “How was the show last night?”

“Show was good, though this one fucked up his Afterlife solo again,” Johnny said casually, placing a hand on Brian’s shoulder. The taller man sighed in a kind of bored frustration at Johnny, rubbing his temple for added effect, and I laughed. “That’s okay. The kids know it’s a tough one, and I bet most of them don’t even notice the little mistakes. They’re just excited out of their minds to see you guys. At least, I know that’s how I felt the first time.”

Brian’s expression went from tired to vindicated as he nodded his head firmly in my direction. “Thank you! It’s nice to have someone around who doesn’t focus solely on my mistakes all the time. These guys are dicks.” He shoved Johnny, who shoved him back. “We don’t focus _solely_ on your mistakes, Brian, we just focus on mistakes you make in your _solos_.”

I laughed at them as their shoves grew smaller and smaller until they were just poking one another repeatedly, both wanting to have the last jab. I turned my attention to Val and Brooks sitting across from us to address them. “Say, what time is it, anyways?”

“It’s almost eleven,” Brooks answered. My eyes grew big, and he continued. “But, you’ve been working early during the day when we’re usually asleep, _and_ staying up late to see the shows, too, so it was probably good you caught up on some rest.”

I nodded, grateful for his excuse. Hopefully no one thought I was too much of a bum. If it was already eleven, though, I had work to do. I drank the rest of my coffee quickly, and stood up from the couch. “Okay, guys, I’m going to go do some work for a while. I need to see if I can find any precedent for our case.”

“Okay, good luck! We’re gonna be stopping for lunch at a diner in a few hours, so we’ll come grab you then.” Val said. I thanked her, put my mug in the kitchen sink, and headed towards the back of the bus. 

Beyond the bunks and through a sliding door was the back lounge area. It was a small room, lined with dark, faux leather couches on the back and left walls. It was mostly used for extra storage—there was a small pile of what appeared to be dirty clothes on one sofa—but it was also a great place to find some privacy. I reached underneath a couch to pick up my laptop from where I’d left it, and settled down into the cushions. It was time to get to work.

When the computer powered up, I couldn’t help but laugh quietly at my desktop background. It was a photo of all of us on tour, taken backstage a few weeks ago, and we looked kind of ridiculous. Matt was carrying Val piggyback-style, which had been really cute, until Johnny—not wanting to be left out—had hopped on Brian’s back, too. In the center of the image, Zack and Brooks were carrying me across their arms. It made for a good picture, but I hadn’t gotten warned about it beforehand, so my arms were clinging to Zack’s shoulders for dear life. I shook my head slightly at the image, still smiling, then finally put on some headphones to block out the sounds from the front of the bus and got to work.

~~~

After what felt like only a few minutes, I noticed the door separating me from the rest of the bus slide open, and I looked up to meet deep brown eyes. It was Brian. He motioned for me to take my earbuds out, and I did. “Hey, Christa, we’re gonna stop for lunch in about ten minutes here. Just wanted to let you know in case you wanted to get dressed,” he said, smirking slightly.

I glanced down at myself, realized I was still in my pajamas, and laughed. I swear I’d tried to keep it professional when we’d first started the tour last month, but being in such close proximity with these people made it next to impossible. Now here I was, waking up at eleven and sitting around all day in my pajamas. I shook my head at myself. “Sounds good, Brian. Thanks for the heads up.” I closed out of the internet tabs and documents I was working on as he turned and headed back towards the front of the bus. Once I’d stashed my computer back under the couch, I went over to my bunk to look for some more appropriate daytime clothes.

After getting dressed and pulling my hair into a messy ponytail in the bathroom, I emerged to join the group in the main section of the bus. “So, where did you guys say we were eating again?” I asked. 

“It’s called Sue’s Diner,” Johnny responded. “Not a fancy name, but the breakfast food is some of the best I’ve ever had. We found it almost ten years ago by accident, and now we always stop there on our way out of Illinois.” I nodded. Diner food sounded great right now. But, then again, considering that I’d missed breakfast that morning, almost anything would’ve sounded good to me.

I could feel that the bus was traveling more slowly than it had been this morning, as we’d moved off of the main highway and onto smaller roads. Looking out the windows again, I could see more buildings passing by: a gas station, a supermarket, a few fast food restaurants, and a bank. It looked like we were going through a small town, and I couldn’t help but smile at the thought. It didn’t look so different from the place where I’d grown up. I had gone to law school in California, and thoroughly enjoyed living in Huntington Beach now. But, there’s no place like home, and something about being on the road made me miss it more than usual.

We pulled up to the restaurant a few minutes later, and all filed out to see that the other bus had already arrived. The door opened to reveal Matt first, who carefully stepped his two boys off the bus and onto the ground. “We beat you guys here!” he called jokingly, grinning. “What took you so long?”

Val simply sighed and shook her head at him, walking over to pick up their younger son in her arms. “None of us are in charge of driving the buses. You get no credit.” Despite her emotionless words, she did step up on her toes to kiss him briefly. They were perfect for each other, I thought. I simultaneously felt warm, fuzzy feelings and a small pang of jealousy.

Zack followed Matt down the stairs, holding Tennessee’s hand as he walked behind the young boy. “Nah, we totally made it go faster. It’s because all the cool people were on our bus,” he announced with a smirk, ruffling his son’s hair. After a few more eye rolls and protests from our side, our entire crowd managed to head into the restaurant.

Seeing as it was the middle of the week in the middle of nowhere and breakfast had passed a long time ago, I’d thought this place would be next to empty, but there were actually quite a few people inside. Luckily, though, there was no group as big as ours, and we were seated immediately at a large, rounded booth in the corner of the restaurant. I ended up between Brian and Zack, and everyone splintered off into a myriad of small conversations. 

“So, Christa. How’s all the legal stuff going?” Zack asked me, eyes moving up from the pancake section of the menu to look at me. He closed it a second later, apparently having made his selection already. If this place was as good as Johnny said, it wouldn’t surprise me if all the guys remembered their favorite orders without even needing the menu.

“Not so bad,” I responded thoughtfully, tilting my head to one side and then the other. “Yesterday was rough, but I made a little bit of progress doing research this morning, I think.” 

Zack nodded, a piece of shaggy black hair falling into his face before he pushed it aside. He usually had it slicked back, but much like the rest of us, couldn’t be bothered today. Ah well. It looked good, regardless. “Yeah, Matt told me what you said yesterday. But I’m not worried. I know you’ll do your best, and we’ll pull through one way or another. We always do.”

I smiled at him. “Thanks, Zack.” Though I had confidence in my abilities as a lawyer, I couldn’t help but think that these people were all much too nice to me. Not sure what else to say, I returned my gaze to the open menu in front of me. “So, what’re you planning to get? Everything here sounds really good, and I can’t pick,” I admitted.

He chuckled slightly, leaning in a bit to get a better look at my menu. “I always go for the chicken and waffles, personally.” He pointed to the item in question, and my eyes got distracted examining the tattoos on his hand. “Or, if you’re feeling something sweet, chocolate chip pancakes are a good choice.” He moved his hand over to the adjacent page.

I made a contemplative sound, weighing my options. I did have a pretty serious sweet tooth. “I’ll go for the pancakes, then,” I said with a nod, decisively closing my menu. “Thanks, Zack!”

He smiled at me. “No problem.”

We had all ordered our food a few minutes later, and continued chatting amongst ourselves as we waited for it to arrive. “Oh, I almost forgot,” Zack said suddenly, turning his focus from Tennessee, who was seated on the other side of him, to look back at me. “Kiddo here told me that you read him his favorite story last night. Thanks a load for doing that. I wish I was able to read to him more often, but with our shows going so late…” he trailed off, a slightly pained expression coming over his face.

“Oh, of course! It’s no trouble at all, I’m happy to do it,” I said. The last thing I wanted was for Zack to feel like he wasn’t doing enough for his son. I leaned forward in my seat to look around the guitarist and talk to Tennessee directly. “We had a good time last night, didn’t we?” The little boy nodded his head rapidly. “Yeah, we did!”

Zack chuckled at his son’s enthusiasm, putting an arm around his shoulders affectionately. “Well, even so, I wanted to say thank you.” Zack’s stunning green eyes met mine, and he held my gaze. Neither of us said anything for several moments. I could tell from his serious expression that he meant what he said; he wanted to spend more time with his son, but if he couldn’t be there, he was glad that someone else was. I nodded at him, a bit slowly, a gentle smile forming on my lips. “Anytime,” I said softly. 

The trance was broken a moment later when our server arrived back at the table, carrying a large tray laden with giant plates of breakfast food. “Alright, who had the blueberry waffles?” she asked.

I moved my gaze away from Zack as Val claimed the plate, feeling a slight blush creep onto my face. It was silly, but sometimes I still had to pull myself back from getting too attached to these guys, especially to Zack. Everyone else was happily married, and no way in hell would I get in the way of that. But Zacky Vengeance was the one I’d had a crush on since I was twenty, anyways, and getting close enough to the band to learn everyone’s quirks and true personalities had done pitifully little to make it go away.

I snapped back to reality when our server called out chocolate chip pancakes, raising my hand and taking the plate from her. They were stacked high on the plate and smelled amazing; I couldn’t wait to dig in. I reached for the bottle of syrup in the middle of the table to get the rest of my sugar fix, as our server passed out the last few plates.

The pancakes were every bit as delicious as I had hoped, and I had to admit that the guys made a good call on lunch. Everyone else’s meals must have been good, too, because for the most part, we were all too busy shoveling food into our faces to make any conversation.

We sat around for a few minutes after we’d eaten, relaxing and talking about the next tour date, which would be in Michigan the following night. We were all full at this point, and were reluctant to move, but it was soon time to get back on the road. Matt called for the check and paid it, and we all slowly got up from our booth to head towards the door. I’d tried to pay for my own food during the first few weeks of the tour, but Matt had adamantly refused to let it happen. According to him, me agreeing to do my work while on the road with them more than balanced it out. I wasn’t entirely sure that was true, considering that I was enjoying myself, but I hadn’t argued with him further. Now, I was just a happy beneficiary of the guys’ generosity.

I returned to the back lounge and to lawyer-work once we were on the bus again, sending off emails and meticulously going over the band’s contract with their previous record company. I was looking for any language that might imply our claims were more legitimate than the opposition’s, but didn’t find anything I hadn’t already been aware of before. 

At around 7 o’clock, we arrived at our hotel in Mount Pleasant. Although being on the buses with everyone was generally not bad, it came as a relief to get to stay in hotels when we had the opportunity. Everyone had their own room, aside from the kids and couple, and it was so refreshing to have all that _space_! We checked in at the front desk in an elegant lobby, went up the elevator to the top floor of the building, and then dispersed for the evening. As I rolled my suitcase down the hall towards my room, a long, hot shower was the only thing on my mind. 

After my shower, in which I took full advantage of the hotel’s hot water supply, I dried my hair and changed into my pajamas. It was only 8:30, so I had some time to myself for a few hours before I’d need to go to bed. I passed most of it wasting time on the internet, watching animal videos and catching up on a few episodes of shows that I’d fallen behind on. When I started to yawn more frequently, though, I decided it was time for a solid night’s sleep.

I snuggled under the plush duvet of the queen-sized bed, thankful again that the guys had included me in their arrangements for the tour. I thought back to lunch earlier in the day, and to Zack and Tennessee. Seeing as I was alone, I let myself heave a wistful sigh. Zack was a colleague. A friend. Hell, considering that I was working for the band, he was technically my client. No good would come of thinking of him in any other capacity, and yet, I couldn’t seem to get those green eyes out of my mind.

I rolled onto my side and snapped my own eyes shut, trying to block out my thoughts and distract myself with sleep. Being on tour with the band was fun, for sure, but I was here to do an important job. At the end of the day, I was their lawyer, nothing more. Now was no time to be crossing personal boundaries. 

With my own resolve reaffirmed, I was able to relax before too long. Being in a comfy bed for the first time in a week certainly helped. I realized faintly that there was no chance of being woken up in the morning by the feeling of the bus moving beneath me, and with a small smile on my face, I soon fell asleep.


	3. Raising Suspicion

I woke up the next morning with an unpleasant start to what sounded like a jackhammer going off. With a scowl coming over my face, I threw the bed covers aside and tramped over to the window, pulling the curtains back. I looked down. Sure enough, there was a crowd of people with construction equipment right next to our hotel. I sighed, my expression turning from one of anger to jaded disappointment. Why did there always seem to be construction going on near the hotels we were staying in? And why did it have to start so early in the morning?

I turned and walked back over to the bed, shaking my head and muttering to myself about noisy jackhammers, and checked the time on my phone. It was 9:04 AM, so it was probably just as good that I was awake, if I was being honest. Checkout was at ten, so this gave me an hour to get ready. Rolling my shoulders back, and resigning myself to the fact that I wouldn’t be getting any more sleep, I walked over to my suitcase to find some clothes for the day.

I finished making myself presentable with a couple of minutes to spare, and quickly repacked my suitcase with the few items I’d bothered to take out. Just as I was zipping it up, I heard a knock at the door. I stood to my full height, set my suitcase upright, and opened the door to see Matt.

“Hey Christa, you just about ready to go? I think everyone else is already downstairs. Well, except for Brian…” his voice trailed off, eyes sliding to the side.

I laughed. Brian was always the hardest one to get out of his hotel room. Probably because he was the most resistant to waking up in the first place, and also because he took the longest to get ready. “Yeah, I’m ready.” I grabbed the handle of my suitcase and pulled it up beside me, showing him it was packed. I took one last look around the room to make sure I hadn’t left anything, and stepped out into the hall with the singer.

“So, are we going to fetch Brian?” I asked. Matt chuckled, hands sliding into his pockets as he started off down the hall. “Well, if you don’t mind coming with me, it might make things easier.” I nodded my head and followed him. Brian had no problem telling his bandmates to fuck off and throw a pillow at them, but I was still new enough to the group that he was a bit more inclined to go along with what I asked. 

…Well, at least sometimes.

We stopped in front of a door at the opposite end of the hall, Matt rapping against it with his fist. “Brian, we need to go! It’s already ten!” His voice was firm and left no room for argument.

A distinct grumbling could be heard from the other side of the door. It cracked open to reveal half of the guitarist’s face, one visible eyebrow drawn down into a frown.“I need, like, five more minutes.”

“Dude, no you don’t. We’ll have a stylist to fix your fuckin’ hair before the show tonight, no one cares what it looks like right now.” Matt’s voice was exasperated, and I giggled at the two of them. It would be so easy to just listen to their conversation and pretend I wasn’t here, but I was supposed to be helping Matt.

“C’mon, Brian, we need to go. They stop serving breakfast at ten, so if we wanna grab anything we need to get it now.” I added.  The door opened the rest of the way suddenly, revealing an incredulous-looking Brian.

“What the hell? Who eats breakfast that early?” Matt and I looked at each other, but didn’t bother to answer the guitarist’s question. Brian sighed. “Fine, I’m coming, I’m coming.”

We followed Brian into the hotel room and watched him gather up a surprising number of hair care products. Matt snorted. “Shut up!” Brian said, grabbing a final can of hairspray off his bathroom counter and chucking it into his duffel bag. When everything was packed up, he walked back out the door with us and pulled it closed behind him. 

We got to the lobby at 10:15, and found everyone else already waiting there. A few rolled their eyes jokingly; they knew it wasn’t Matt or I who’d held things up. Once Matt had managed to check us out at the reception counter, he turned to address everyone else. “Have you guys eaten?” They nodded. The three of us who’d shown up late walked to the other side of the lobby to the breakfast room. All the hot food had been cleared away at this point, but I did manage to grab a muffin to go. Matt and Brian grabbed bagels, and once the three of us had breakfast in hand, we all left the hotel.

After dropping our suitcases off in the bays underneath the tour buses, Val spoke. “So, you guys don’t need to be at the venue for soundcheck until three, right? I guess we could wander around the city until then, if we want.”

Zack nodded in confirmation. “Yeah, we’ve got a few hours to kill. But, I think _someone_ had wanted to go shopping for a new outfit before tonight’s show.” One side of his mouth curved up into a smirk, and he crossed his arms smugly as he turned to face Johnny. 

Brooks let out a short sigh through his nose as everyone else’s focus shifted to the bassist. “Again, dude?”

Johnny put up his hands defensively. “You guys know I tore my studded jacket during the last show! I need a new one. Besides, the rest of you could use a serious wardrobe update, too.”

The band grumbled a bit, looking at one another. The clothes they’d packed at the beginning of the tour had gotten pretty beaten up at this point. They tilted their heads from side to side at first, contemplating, and then finally started to nod in agreement with Johnny. 

“Alright, then, I guess the five of us are going shopping,” Zack said with a chuckle, turning back to look at Val and me. 

“I’ll take all the kids and we’ll do our own thing for a while, then. Give you guys some space,” Val said. The guys nodded to her in thanks. Shopping for clothes would be much easier without them there. “I can come with you, Val, if you want a hand,” I offered. She smiled at me, and with that, our plans were settled.

Zack kneeled down to get eye-level with his son, who was standing beside him. “Hey, Tennessee, do you wanna hang out with Chrissie and Aunt Val for the day?” 

The little boy nodded, apparently feeling agreeable today. Sometimes, it was hard to get him to leave Zack’s side. “Okay!” he said, giving his dad a thumbs up. Zack returned the gesture, grinning at him, and stood back up.

“Alright, then. Meet back here at 2:30?” he questioned, looking around at our group. Everyone agreed. The guys were dressed mostly in sweats and sunglasses for now—Matt had swapped out his usual aviators for his “disguise” Ray-Bans—so hopefully they wouldn’t be recognized during the day. Considering that the five of them were tough enough to handle themselves, they preferred to not have a bodyguard on days they could get away with it. 

The band hailed a large cab from the edge of the parking lot and all clambered in, waving to Val and I as Johnny started giving directions to the driver from the passenger’s seat. After they’d driven off, Val turned to look at me. She shrugged her shoulders. “I guess we could go to the park?”

I laughed softly. “That’s probably a good idea. I’m sure these guys would like to have a place to run around for a while, after being cooped up in the bus,” I said. I took hold of Tennessee’s hand in mine. We were still in the parking lot, but it never hurt to be safe. 

The five of us walked to where the guys had just been standing and also called a cab, asking to go to the nearest park. When we’d arrived at the playground area, Val and I sat down on a bench at the edge of the sand lot and let the kids go free. There were already several other families there, with moms and dads watching their children play from the benches on either side of us.

We chatted about nothing in particular as we watched the kids climbing on the jungle gym and slides. I could tell that Val was making sure to keep a close eye on Cash, since he was the youngest, but all three of them seemed to be having a good time together. The conversation lulled after a while, and we sat in silent companionship as we watched the boys play.

After spending a few hours at the playground, during which I had to resist falling asleep in the warm sun, the kids seemed to have tired themselves out. Most of the people around us had left by now, replaced by the next shift of parents and their children. Judging by their slow movements, it looked like our kids were just about ready to leave, too.

“Should we call them back, you think?” I asked Val. She nodded, and we got up to walk over to the boys. “Hey there, are you guys ready to head back to the bus?” she asked them. They stopped in their path of moving up the spiral staircase to the tallest slide. “We don’t wanna go back yet!” River announced, speaking for the other two.

“Well, you look really tired,” Val said, trying to reason with him. “I think it’s time to leave the park.”

“Mooooom!” he said dramatically. Should have known there was no reasoning with a five-year-old.

“You guys have been playing really hard,” Val said, trying a different approach. “I think it’s time for a treat. What if we go get some ice cream to cool off, instead?” 

I could see the kids’ eyes light up, and they spoke in unison. “Yeah!”

We gathered the three of them off the steps to the slide and, once Cash was safely back in Val’s arms, walked to the edge of the park to get another cab. With the help of the internet, I managed to find a nearby ice cream parlor on my phone, and asked the driver to take us there.

“Hear anything from the guys?” I asked Val, turning to look at her in the back seat. She nodded, looking like she was trying to hold in a smile. “Johnny already found a new jacket, apparently. Now he’s trying to convince the rest of them to buy their own flashy clothes.”

I laughed, turning back to face the front windshield. “That sounds about right.”

We arrived at the ice cream shop soon after, each of the kids picking up a paper bowl from a stack in the back of the room. The shop was set up so that you could choose your own soft-serve ice cream and toppings, and then pay based on the weight of your cup. The were a dozen self-serve stations with different flavors along the back wall. Val helped her two boys get the flavors they wanted, and I got Tennessee the strawberry he’d requested. 

We were on to the toppings bar next, which contained everything from cookie dough bits to gummy worms. After getting about five different toppings for Tennessee, I decided I might need to cut him off. I was no expert on kids’ nutrition, but I was pretty sure giving them a boatload of sugar wasn’t recommended by anyone. “I think that’s probably enough, buddy,” I said as I put a small spoonful of rainbow sprinkles into his cup. I held it down to show him. “Look, you can’t even see the ice cream anymore!”

He paused for a moment in contemplation, examining the cup’s contents, and eventually nodded. “Okay. But I still need chocolate sauce!” 

I glanced up to see that the last station was for various syrups. Damn, I hadn’t noticed those before. “Well okay, we can get some chocolate sauce, but that’s the last thing!”

I heard someone giggle behind me, and turned around to see an older woman in line behind us. She smiled at me. “Sorry, I just couldn’t help but notice that your son is adorable.”

I smiled back at her, opening my mouth and closing it again as her words sunk in. “Oh, thank you, but he’s not actually my son. I’m… looking after him for a friend.”

She smiled again. “Well, either way, he’s very cute.”

I thanked her again, and turned back to Tennessee as I felt him tugging on the bottom of my shirt. “I need chocolate sauce!” he whined.

“Don’t worry, buddy, I’m about to get you some.” I set his cup down beneath the dispenser and pushed the lever, chocolate goo adding to the sugary concoction already in his cup. 

Once we’d paid for the kids’ ice creams and grabbed three plastic spoons, we all sat down at a table outside the shop. Val and I ended up on one side, with the three kids sitting on the other side. “What did that lady say to you, Christa?” Val asked me curiously as the kids started eating.

“Oh,” I said, moving my eyes away from Tennessee to look at her. “She was saying my son was cute,” I said, gesturing to the boy seated across from me. “I told her he wasn’t mine, but a friend’s.”

Val nodded, a smile growing on her face. She spoke quietly when she responded. “Maybe he’s not yours, but the two of you are cute together. He obviously likes you a lot, I can see why she thought you were his mom.” 

I could feel my face heating up a bit at her comment, but tried to wave it off. “Nah, I think I’m just one of his friends who happens to be an adult. I don’t think I’m cut out for being a parent, I don’t know how you guys do it.” I gave a short, awkward laugh. When I looked back at Val, I noticed one of her eyebrows was raised, and her expression had shifted to mischievous. _Oh, shit._

“You’d be a great mom, Christa. Zack’s already a great dad. The two of you would make a good team.” She was speaking very quietly at the end, making sure none of the kids could hear her. Though, quite frankly, they were so immersed in their ice cream at the moment that we probably could’ve been shouting and they wouldn’t have heard it.

I looked at her with barely-restrained shock now. Did she know? Was she onto me? The smirk growing on her face told me she was. “How did you…?” I left the question hanging in the air, unable to finish it.

She gave a small shrug. “I dunno. I guess I just know the signs of being in love with a member of this band. From personal experience and all.” I opened my mouth to correct her statement, but she continued before I got the chance. “It doesn’t seem like any of them have noticed, though. Don’t worry, you haven’t been too obvious.”

I felt a tiny bit of relief at that, but still stuttered out my next words. “I-I’m not in love with Zack.” My voice was quiet, and I kept stealing glances at the kids to make sure they were still distracted. They were, so I decided to explain. “I just, I used to have a crush on him back before we met, and I’m still trying to get over it, but it’s hard when we’re all together like this—” I cut myself off before I could do any more damage. Dear Jesus, could I sound any more unprofessional if I tried?

Val laughed softly. “It’s okay, Christa. You haven’t done anything wrong. And you don’t have to be so stiff, it’s okay! I won’t tell anyone. I promise.” I looked at her face, and could tell she was being honest. I let out a slow sigh of relief, trying to steady myself.

“Thank you, Val. I’m sorry. I’m just… trying not to cross any boundaries, you know? I’m here to do a job, and I don’t want anyone to get the idea that I have… ulterior motives.” I shifted in my seat, a bit uncomfortable.

She nodded, smiling sympathetically now. “I understand, Christa. But, even so, there’s nothing wrong with you spending time with Tennessee if you want to. It helps him out, and it helps Zack out. So just don’t overthink it, okay? Just do what you want to do.” She paused for a moment, as if considering her next words. Then she smirked again, adding, “And let me know if you decide you want help snagging Zack. I think we might be able to make it happen. You fit in well around here, Christa, and we don’t find people we can say that about too often.”

I was having mixed feelings about everything she said, but settled for smiling gratefully at her. “Thanks, Val. I really like hanging out with all of you, and Tennessee, too. But, I think it’d be best if I just stay in the role I was hired for…” Maybe? I didn’t quite sound convinced, even to myself.

“Whatever you wanna do, Christa. But the offer stands.” She winked at me and turned back to the kids, finally raising her voice back to a normal volume. “Hey, are you guys gonna share any of that ice cream?”

The boys finished eating a few minutes later, and we hailed another cab to go back to the buses. It was only one o’clock, but it was almost time for Cash’s nap, and the kids didn’t seem to care about going anywhere else, anyways. 

Once we were back at the bus and I’d grabbed my laptop, I excused myself from Val and the kids. I needed to go spend some time working on the guys’ bus, and even more than that, I needed to be alone with my thoughts. I sat down on the couch in the main living area, and let my shoulders slump.

I loved Val, but she must have been crazy. There was no way in hell that I’d ever be like a mom to Tennessee. I was just trying to be a friend, a companion when Zack couldn’t be there. And Zack...

I felt my face flush again at just the thought of him. Val thought the two of us could be together? There was no way. No way he’d ever be interested in me. And their band family was happy, and I was happy being their lawyer. There was no way I wanted to mess up the relationship we had. They were my favorite clients, and I couldn’t go ruining that by making a move on their guitarist and getting fired—

 _But if you married Zack, I mean, you could still be their lawyer. And then you’d be Tennessee’s stepmom, too, which is_ kind of _like being his mom_ —

The thought had come unbidden, and I shut it down as soon as I could, putting my face into my hands with a groan. No. No, no, no! That was ridiculous. It wasn’t going to happen. I was going to do my job, and I was going to spend time with Tennessee when Zack couldn’t, and things were going to continue on as they were. I opened up my laptop, hoping to distract myself with work, and was confronted by the picture of everyone backstage with my arms wrapped around Zack’s neck again.

“Not helping,” I muttered, opening an internet browser window with a forceful click. With the picture successfully hidden, I did my best to throw my mind back into work.

It took a few minutes, but I did finally manage to get myself into a decent groove. I was researching other cases where musicians had walked away from their recording contracts early, and examining the results and the judges’ rulings. I was making notes of anything remotely similar to our case, typing away contentedly for quite some time.

Eventually, I was drawn out of my focused state when I heard the door to the bus open. I looked up from my laptop to see the band quickly enter as a group. They were each carrying at least one shopping bag from what I could see, and they were talking to each other in hurried voices. I looked back to my computer to see that it was already 2:47 PM. That would explain it.

“Is everything okay, you guys?” I asked them. I knew they were probably stressed because we were leaving seventeen minutes later than intended, but figured I should at least make my presence known.

Five pairs of eyes shifted to me, seeing me for the first time. “Oh, hey, Christa. Everything’s fine, we just need to leave for the venue, like, _now_ if we’re going to be able to do our full soundcheck.” Johnny explained.

Matt nodded in agreement. “Yeah, but our driver’s here and ready to go. If we leave now, we should be fine.” He set his shopping bag down on the seat across from me, and looked expectantly towards the front of the bus in the direction of the driver’s cabin. “Aaaaany minute now…”

As if on cue, the rumble of the engine starting could be heard a moment later. The bus was backing up, then pulling forward, and we were soon leaving the hotel parking lot to get back on the road.

The guys seemed to relax then, realizing we were officially on the way to the venue. They grabbed drinks from the fridge and settled down into the couches. I scooted over to accommodate Johnny and Brian next to me, shutting my laptop as I did so. I could pick back up where I left off later. “So, what’d you guys all buy today?”

The band humored me with a tour of their shopping bags, holding up items in turn for my inspection. They ranged from new black jeans for Brian to a skull t-shirt for Matt to Johnny’s leather jacket. It was covered in shiny, silver spikes that must have each been an inch long, and actually looked kind of dangerous. I laughed at the sight. “What the hell, Johnny? You’re gonna hurt someone with that thing.” 

“Exactly!” he said, seeming far too satisfied with my reaction. “It might finally keep these assholes from messing with me on stage!”

That gave everyone a good laugh, though we all knew it wouldn’t be nearly enough to keep the rest of the guys from picking on him. We spent the rest of the drive talking about the band’s plan for the show that night, and ultimately arrived at the venue only ten minutes late.

The guys hopped up and headed for the door as soon as the bus stopped. We said our goodbyes, and Zack, being the last one out, turned around to address me. “You coming to the show tonight, Christa?”

I thought about it for a second, then smiled and nodded at him. “Yeah, I’ll be there!”

He grinned back at me. “Awesome! We’ll see you backstage, then.” With that, he turned and followed his bandmates out the door, closing it behind him.

I smiled contentedly to myself. Getting to see the show was always a good time. Plus, having something to look forward to actually gave me motivation to work for the next few hours. I opened my computer up again, and got back at it.


	4. Backstage

I sighed dramatically as I hit “send” on my last email for the day. Managing a lawsuit of this magnitude could get complicated, and it was nice to be done for now. My eyes flicked to the upper-right corner of the laptop screen to see that it was already 7:24 PM. I smiled involuntarily. The opening band would be starting any minute now, and it was time to switch gears for the night.

I closed my computer and stood up, stretching my arms out to the sides and feeling the tension begin to leave my body. After taking a moment to collect my thoughts, I picked the laptop up again and carried it out of the guys’ tour bus. I walked over to the second bus, expecting to be greeted by the sound of the kids playing when I opened the door. However, as I pulled it open and walked up the stairs, everything was silent. I looked around the living area and bunks, but no one was there. 

_They must already be backstage_ , I thought to myself. Maybe the kids and Val were going to be watching the show with me tonight.

I went over to my own bunk and stashed the laptop in the backpack I’d brought along on tour. From the foot of the bed, I grabbed an Avenged Sevenfold t-shirt, a pair of dark jeans, and some black Converses. Hey, as long as I was going to be backstage at their show I may as well look the part, right?

I changed clothes in the middle of the bunk area, knowing that no one would be coming in, and then went into the bathroom to check my appearance. Everything was more or less in order, so I decided to leave my hair and makeup as they were. I nodded to myself once in the mirror, and then left the bus again.

Luckily, we were parked close to the backstage entrance, so I didn’t have any trouble finding where I was supposed to go. I opened a door that led up a flight of stairs, and walked down a white-walled hallway towards the sound of voices. I passed a few of the venue’s employees on my way towards the stage, but no one seemed concerned about my presence. _So much for security._ I was dressed like a fan, and probably didn’t look like I worked here at all, but I guess everyone had bigger things on their minds this close to the start of the show.

I could hear the hum of the crowd more clearly now, and knew I must be getting close to the stage. Finally, I made it to a door that looked promising. It had a paper sign taped on the front that read “A7X”, so I pushed it open and looked inside. It led into a fairly large room, with the same white walls and fake-tile floors as the hallway. There were several mismatched couches strewn against the walls, and a clothing rack filled with mostly black and leather pieces near the center of the room.

As the sign had promised, on the far side of the room, I could see Matt and Brooks joking and laughing with each other. I walked over to join their group. “What’re you guys up to now?” I asked them, crossing my arms over my chest jokingly.

Matt was the one to answer me, still grinning from whatever they’d been talking about. “Hey, Christa. Nothing much, just finishing up getting ready for the show. Johnny’s the last one to get a shower, so we were waiting for him.” He pointed over his shoulder towards a bathroom door I hadn’t noticed before. I nodded in response. “What happened to your guitarists?”

“They’re in the room next door,” Brooks said. “The venue’s pretty big, so we got two all to ourselves this time. Val and the kids are with them, too.”

“Ah,” I said. “So we’re all watching the show, then?”

“Sounds like it,” Matt said, smiling. I could tell he was always happy to have his family close by, and quite frankly, it was adorable. The singer glanced at his phone to check the time. “Opening act’s on in three minutes. Whenever Johnny gets out, we can all go over there for a few minutes before our set.” He walked over to the bathroom and hit his fist against the door a few times. “Johnny, hurry up! Opening band’s gonna start soon!” The response, while muffled, somehow managed to sound indignant, and I couldn’t help but chuckle. 

“You guys can go on ahead if you want to hang out with everyone else. I’ll stay here with Johnny and make sure he doesn’t pick an outfit that’s _too_ absurd,” I said, figuring that was probably at least part of the reason why they were waiting around like this. The two musicians looked at each other, then Brooks shrugged. “Yeah, we’ll probably take you up on that, if you’re sure. Thanks, Christa.”

The guys headed over to the next room, and I plopped down onto the couch to wait for Johnny, playing games on my phone in the meantime. I didn’t mind waiting at all. Johnny was the most outwardly social member of Avenged Sevenfold, and perhaps with the exception of Matt, he was the band member I’d consider my closest friend. After he’d emerged from the shower and I’d talked him out of wearing red plaid pants with his new spiky jacket—convincing him that one would distract from the “awesomeness” of the other if he wore both—he spiked his hair up with gel, and we went over to join the others.

Matt and Val were sitting on one couch with their kids on either side of them, looking like a perfect family unit. Zack, Brian, Brooks, and Tennessee were on the other. The opening act had been playing for several minutes at this point, so it was somewhat loud backstage, but not so noisy that we couldn’t hear each other.

We sat around talking, not doing much of anything, until the opening band had stopped. There were only 20 minutes left before Avenged’s set, and it was time for a final round of warming up. “We’re gonna go over next door and get ready for the show, okay, Ten?” Zack said, addressing his son with a hand on his shoulder. The little boy’s face scrunched up in a frown. “You have to go already?” He sounded disappointed, and I could see the regret in Zack’s expression.

“Yeah, I’m sorry, kiddo. But you’ll be able to watch the whole show from backstage tonight, if you want to!” Zack glanced at the rest of us, as if looking for something to cheer up his son. “You can hang out with Aunt Val and Chrissie!”

Tennessee looked unconvinced at first, but his frown eventually dissolved when his eyes landed on me. I gave what I hoped was an encouraging thumbs up. A small smile appeared on his face, and he looked back up at his dad. “That’ll be okay, then.”

Zack shot me a grateful look, before returning his attention to his son. “Perfect. I’ll be looking for you from the stage, okay?” With Tennessee appeased, the band headed back out of the room to warm up, Matt already starting to hum low scales as they left.

After the door had swung shut behind them, I was again alone with Val and the kids. I met her eyes to realize she was smirking at me again, playfully, and I looked away. It wasn’t like that. He wasn’t interested in me like that. It was time to get ready for the show. 

For the sake of having something to do, I stood up and walked over to a cardboard box labeled “Hearing Protection” in the corner, rummaging around until I found three pairs of earmuffs. These would make sure the kids’ hearing wasn’t damaged during the show. When I sat back down on the couch, carrying them, I saw that Val had produced a pack of playing cards from her handbag. She looked up at me, mischief gone from her eyes now and replaced with a genuine smile. “Wanna play Go Fish?” I smiled back at her and nodded. 

We spent the rest of the time until the guys’ set playing card games with the kids. I was grateful that Val didn’t push the issue of Zack further for now; she must have seen that it was bothering me. It wasn’t like she had done anything wrong at all, but I just didn’t want to think about it right now. I wanted to be able to enjoy the show without reading into every tiny interaction I had with him.

Once it got close to showtime, we cleaned up the card games and left the room we’d been sitting in. We walked over to the left wing of the stage, holding the kids’ hands the whole way. A curtain separating us from the stage was drawn closed, so there was no way anyone could see us. However, the crowd was obviously ready to see the band. Repeated chants of “SE-VEN-FOLD” could be heard from the audience loud and clear. 

I smiled to myself as I felt butterflies erupt in my stomach. Being here reminded me of the first time I’d ever seen them in concert. I’d been twenty-four years old, in the pit, chanting along with the rest of them. They’d opened with Beast and the Harlot, I remember, and I’d damn near lost my mind with excitement. It was hard to believe eight years had passed since then, but I had to say, watching the guys perform never got old.

Speaking of the band, they appeared from behind us a moment later, talking excitedly with each other. Their pre-show rituals completed, they were ready to get out there. Johnny was practically bouncing off his heels. Val and I helped the kids get their earmuffs on as “Back in Black” started playing over the loudspeakers, as it always did before the band came out on stage for this tour. I squatted down in front of Tennessee, making sure his ears were completely covered, and then stood back up to face the band.

“You guys ready for this?” I asked, unable to keep the grin off of my face. Johnny nodded at me enthusiastically, mohawk bobbing up and down, and adjusted the strap of his bass on his shoulder. “We’re ready,” he said confidently. “It’s gonna be fucking awesome!”

When the song playing over the speakers faded out a moment later, a technician pulled back the curtain from the other side, motioning for the guys to come out. Val and I said our final good luck’s to the guys as they passed us, and they went to take their positions on the stage. 

The crowd had grown even louder than before, their chants replaced by clapping and cheering now that the band had arrived. The opening bars of “The Stage” could soon be heard coming from a synthesizer, and when Brian started riffing on his guitar a few seconds later, the show was officially underway.

Val and I stood on the sidelines, watching appreciatively as the band performed the songs we all knew so well. It never ceased to amaze me how they could play so hard, night after night, and still put on such an impressive show. The crowd seemed especially engaged tonight, shouting every word back at Matt for new and old songs alike. The fanbase that they’d built and maintained, across years of music and multiple style changes, made me proud to be a part of the Avenged Sevenfold family.

The guys would glance over at us every once in a while, when they were between songs or were walking over towards our side of the stage. Val held Cash in her arms most of the time, holding up his hand to wave at Matt occasionally, while River stood beside her for the most part. At one point, when Zack was on the far side of the stage, Tennessee asked me to hold him up to get a better view. I agreed, picking him up across my arms the same way Val was holding Cash. He squirmed around a bit to get into a comfortable position, then became still as he turned his attention to the guitarist. Zack was walking towards us a minute later, and Tennessee waved at him wildly, trying to get his attention. Apparently it worked, because when Zack’s gaze fell on us a moment later, his eyes lit up and he grinned, nodding to us. I smiled back at him, but let Tennessee take care of the waving for now. My arms were full, and seeing me drop his son would _probably_ make Zack lose his place in the song.

We watched the rest of the show without anything unusual happening, picking up and putting down the kids as our arms got tired and as they wanted to be held up. The guys finished off their setlist with Unholy Confessions, and just before Brian played the outro, the music stopped for Matt to shout at the audience.

“You’ve been a great fuckin’ crowd, Michigan!” He paused as the cheers built again, looking positively devilish as he held off on the end of the song, knowing what he was doing to everyone. “We’ll see ya back here real soon! Until next time… AUGH!” He turned around, jumping off the platform he’d been standing on and taking one last lap of the stage as Brian played out the final riff of the song.

When it was all over, they faced the crowd once more, deafening screams and applause erupting from the audience. The guys walked back and forth across the stage to toss guitar picks, setlists, and drumsticks to the lucky people in the first few rows. They finally left the stage by a stairwell in the back, and circled back around to meet us in the dressing rooms.

We congratulated the guys as they came in, sweaty and tired but undeniably happy. The high of performing in front of an audience seemed as real for them as it had ever been. Matt tried to give Val a hug, which she didn’t appreciate, but thankfully I was spared from any such sweaty affection.

Zack walked over to where Tennessee and I were standing, taking his son’s hand in his own, much bigger one. “What’d you think of the show, kiddo?”

Tennessee nodded. “It was great! Did you see me and Chrissie backstage?” He tugged on his dad’s hand excitedly, and Zack chuckled.

“Of course I did! I don’t know how I could’ve missed you, when you were waving like that!” Tennessee seemed satisfied for the moment, and Zack turned his attention to me.

“Thanks for watching him again, Christa,” he said, smiling. He seemed to still be in a bit of a daze from the show, a slightly far-off expression on his face, but that was nothing unusual.

“It’s really no trouble at all, Zacky. He’s a pretty cool kid to hang out with.” I smiled at Tennessee, who returned the expression.

The guitarist raised an eyebrow at me then, seeming to come slightly more back to reality as a small smirk appeared on his face. “What’s that? Since when do you call me ‘Zacky’?”

I could feel my face heating up a bit, realizing what I’d said out loud. I’d always thought of him as Zacky in the beginning, when I’d first started listening to the band and hadn’t known anyone’s real names. But, I tried to call them all by their actual names now that we were working together. I probably sounded like a total fangirl.

“O-oh, I don’t—er, I didn’t mean to—it was an accident, I must’ve called you by your stage name because you were just performing,” I said lamely. It wasn’t untrue; he _was_ Zacky Vengeance when he was on stage, but it still seemed like a silly mistake when we actually knew each other.

Zack laughed again. “It’s okay, Christa, I’m just messing with you. You make it too easy.”

I opened my mouth to reply to that, but Brian suddenly walked up next to us. “Hey man, we should probably go get showers soon so we can get back to driving. Next tour stop’s a long ways away.” He clapped Zack on the back, and went off to give the same message to Brooks. Zack nodded after him, and glanced back at me. “Well, I’d better get going, then. See you around, Christa.” He told Tennessee to stay close to Aunt Val, and then headed off in the direction of the showers.

_Stupid, stupid, stupid,_ I repeated in my head. Why’d I have to go and say that out loud? I still called him Zacky in my mind on a regular basis, yes, but that didn’t need to cross over into the real world. He didn’t actually seem worried about it or anything, but Val was already onto me; the last thing I needed was for him to know, too. I’d have to be more careful with what I said.

After waiting for the band to get showers and change into clean clothes, we were ready to get on the road again. We walked with a couple of venue security guards back to the buses, the guys breaking away to talk with a few especially-devoted fans who’d somehow found where we had parked and waited after the show. After a few pictures were taken and autographs were signed, we piled back into the buses. It was time to get some sleep tonight and wake up somewhere new tomorrow.


	5. Holding Hands

The next few weeks of the tour seemed to pass by in a blur. The guys were performing almost every single night, and since we were constantly headed towards the next show, there wasn’t time to stop and sleep in a hotel. Since “tour bus sleep” isn’t the best sleep in the world, we all started getting a bit irritable after a while. Mildly-annoying habits that would usually go unnoticed garnered snippy remarks, and spats over little things that didn’t matter became more frequent. And despite the fact that everyone in the group got along well in general, being constantly cooped up with each other with no escape to the outside world tested everyone’s patience. To top it all off, the kids started to become more restless over time, which made finding a quiet place to do my work increasingly difficult.

With all of these things considered, it’s no surprise that we were all relieved when the band finally had a few days off. We stopped at a hotel in Orlando for three nights, and finally being back to a real bed and normal living accommodations was pure bliss.

I spent the first night holed up in my room alone, savoring some privacy and time to myself after having none for the past two weeks. The kids were wonderful, really, and I enjoyed getting to play games with them and Val. Reading Tennessee bedtime stories at night always put a smile on my face, too, and I’d been able to do it a lot more recently with the guys’ frequent shows. Even so, having no respite from the three of them on a tour bus could be a lot to handle, and I was thrilled to know that my long shower didn’t have any chance of being interrupted by the sound of someone crying.

After the best night’s sleep I’d had in weeks, I woke up feeling refreshed, and ended up spending most of the second day working in my room. It wasn’t very exciting, but there were some important tasks I needed to catch up on. While fighting this case for Avenged Sevenfold was my main focus at the moment, it wasn’t technically my only job. I had other clients who needed my attention, even if I wasn’t anywhere near the office right now. I met Johnny and Brian in the middle of the day for lunch down the street from the hotel, which provided a nice break and a chance to stretch my legs. But, aside from that, I had the day all to myself. 

I finally joined back up with the group around noon the next day, after a text from Matt asked me to come to his and Val’s room. I went up the elevator and walked down the hall to their suite, double-checking the number on my phone. Matt and Val usually had the biggest room, but considering they had to fit four people into it and that it was always our unofficial meeting place in hotels, I suppose it made sense. I knocked on the door to have it opened by Val a few seconds later. 

“Good morning!” she said brightly, stepping aside to let me in. I glanced at my watch curiously as I crossed the threshold, and saw that it was 11:54 AM. Well, she was technically still right. “Good morning, Val,” I said, laughing a bit as she shut the door behind me. None of us were exactly known for getting an early start, at least not when we had the choice.

Looking around the room, I realized that everyone else was already there, lounging on the couch and beds or standing around in the small kitchen. “Hey, you guys. What’s up?”

“Morning, Christa,” Matt said, greeting me from in front of the open fridge door. “Not too much, we were just trying to get up and get moving for the day. Seems like everyone’s about ready to get out of the hotel before we go stir crazy.” He grabbed a bottle of orange juice and shut the fridge door, looking around at his bandmates and family for confirmation.

“Yeah, I think we’re all ready to get out of our rooms, at least,” Zack said. His expression shifted to an amused one before continuing. “The boys, in particular, wanted to go shopping for some ‘cool clothes’.” He looked over at Tennessee and River seated on the couch, but they were immersed in a video game and weren’t paying him any attention, so he turned back to the rest of us. “I think they got jealous of us buying new concert outfits a few weeks ago. I can’t imagine they’d be entertained by something like that for very long, but they keep bringing it up, so…” he trailed off with a shrug.

I laughed again. It did seem incredibly unlikely that kids no older than five would be entertained by shopping for more than about ten minutes, but at least it gave part of the group a reason to go outside. “Alright, sounds like it could be fun. Is that where the three of you are going, then?” I gestured at Val, Matt, and Zack.

Val and Matt nodded, before Zack spoke again. “Yeah, we’re gonna go, but we were wondering if you’d be up for going with us, Christa. Tennessee’s requested that you be there,” he said with a chuckle. “I guess you guys have gotten to spend more time together over these past few weeks?”

I smiled, breaking away from his green-eyed gaze to look down at my feet. “Yeah, we’ve been reading together almost every night, since you guys have had so many shows.” I felt slightly self-conscious that everyone in the band was hearing this conversation, but that was probably just me being silly; what my brain wanted to interpret as Zack and I “having a moment” was actually just a normal interaction.

Zack nodded, unsurprised, and turned to address Johnny, Brian, and Brooks. “And I think you guys were planning to go hit the gym downstairs, yeah?”

“That’s right,” the bassist provided a bit reluctantly, crossing his arms over his chest. I noticed for the first time that the three of them were wearing t-shirts and basketball shorts. “It’s been a while since we’ve gotten a chance to work out.”

Zack turned back to look at me. “So, what do you think? Wanna come with us?”

I smiled at him, seeing no reason not to go along with it. Pretty much any situation that involved spending time with Zack was something I wanted to be a part of. “Sure thing, I’ll tag along. We can probably at least find some kids’ band shirts that they’d like.” 

Tennessee seemed to perk up then, looking over at the adults and loudly saying, “Yay! Chrissie’s coming with us!” He clapped his hands a couple of times for good measure, earning chuckles from the rest of the room.

Shortly afterwards, once we’d gathered up all the kids, the seven of us made our way downstairs. Cash had no interest in shopping, of course, but Val had said she didn’t mind carrying him for this outing. We called an extra-large cab, and were soon headed off towards the nearest shopping mall.

“Wow, this place is huge,” Matt remarked as we pulled into the sprawling parking lot. And he was right; the multi-story building appeared to be several times larger than a baseball stadium, and looked like it probably held a few hundred stores. It would be enough to keep most adults occupied for several days, but who knew how long we’d be staying with three kids in tow.

Once the cab driver dropped us off and we’d made it inside, we went to inspect the large, illuminated directory in front of us. We scanned through the list of stores, mentioning places that might be worth stopping whenever we saw something interesting. Luckily, there didn’t seem to be any shortage of options.

“We could probably start at this one,” Val said, shifting Cash in her arms as she pointed to a children’s clothing store on the map. It didn’t appear to be far from where we were.

“Works for me,” Matt said, gently taking their younger son from her to give her arms a break. I couldn’t help but smile at them. There was still something funny about watching Matt carry a toddler, no matter how many times I’d seen it at this point; I bet he never thought back in the City of Evil days that he’d be using those muscles for _that_.

We headed off down the mall’s main hallway in the direction of the store. Cash was in Matt’s arms, Val was holding River’s hand, and Tennessee was walking between me and Zack. He looked up at his dad, grabbing Zack’s hand in his right, and then looked up at me, grabbing my hand with his left.

Zack chuckled at the young boy, glancing up at me and then back down at his son. “You taking both of us with you, buddy?”

Tennessee nodded, both of his short arms raised up high to keep hold of our hands. “Yeah!”

I laughed at his enthusiasm, even as I felt a blush start to spread across my cheeks at our new arrangement. Last time I’d had a day out with Tennessee, someone had thought I was his mom. Now, with the way we were walking, it seemed almost inevitable that anyone who saw us would think Zack and I were his parents… which meant they would probably also think Zack and I were together…

I cut off my thoughts as quickly as I could when I realized where they were going. My face was almost certainly red now. Against my better judgement, I risked a glance back at Val, seeing as Tennessee had dragged us a few paces ahead of the Sanders family. She had that small, knowing smirk on her face again. Damn it. My eyes slid over to Matt to see him looking from Val to me and back in confusion, probably wondering what it was that his wife found amusing.

Not wanting to make him any more curious, I turned back to face forward, sidestepping a column that Tennessee would have guided me into otherwise. Hopefully, Matt would forget to ask Val about it later.

We walked the rest of the way to the clothing store and found the boys’ section inside. I let go of Tennessee’s hand to begin parsing through the racks. “So, what kind of clothes did you want to get today?” I asked him, flipping past shirts with toy trucks printed on them.

He scrunched up his face for a moment, seeming to be thinking hard, then looked up at Zack and smiled. “I want clothes that make me look like you!”

I felt my heart melt a bit as I looked at the two of them, seeing Zack’s fondness for his son clear in his eyes, and then laughed softly at the boy’s comment. “I’m sure we can find something like that. Let’s see what they have…”

Despite our searching, the first store turned out to be a bust. There wasn’t anything wrong with their clothes, but nothing really looked rock-star-esqué, so we went back out in search of more options. The second store we found also focused on kids’ clothing, and didn’t have what we were looking for, either. Tennessee grabbed both my and Zack’s hands every time we walked between stores, and I continued to do my best not to think about how it must have looked. Since Zack seemed amused by it and never objected to the arrangement, neither did I. 

The boys were holding up surprisingly well so far, as no one had asked to go home yet or complained about being bored, but we’d also gone through the first two stores quite quickly. If we were going to find something today, it probably needed to happen soon.

On our third try, we stopped looking for kids’ stores and went into a shop focused on alternative clothing. Matt gave a small grunt of approval when we walked in, the black walls and darker aesthetic a definite contrast to the brightly-colored stores we’d been in so far. “This looks more like it.”

We walked over to the cash register to ask the clerk if they had a children’s section, and he led our group over to the back right corner of the store. Sure enough, there was a rack of tiny t-shirts that looked like they would fit the boys. I browsed through the clothes to see that most of them were decorated with skulls or logos of classic bands, and nodded in approval. This was exactly what we’d been after.

I paused in flipping through the clothes when I saw a shirt that looked familiar. “What do you think of this one, Zack?” I asked, holding up a white t-shirt with the Ramones’ insignia on the front. Zack looked over the shirt and smiled in recognition. “Ha! I’ve got one almost exactly like that. Sure, let’s hang on to it.”

Once we’d all helped pick out shirts and gotten the boys to try them on, we let them choose which items they wanted the most. Tennessee did end up getting the Ramones shirt, seeming excited that he’d be able to match with his dad, along with a black AC/DC shirt. River opted for Guns n’ Roses and a skull print.

We rang up our purchases and left the store, the kids talking happily about how much “cooler” they would look now, and the adults in our group tried not to laugh. “Was there anything else you guys wanted to look for?” I asked, addressing Tennessee and River.

The two of them looked pensive for a moment, exchanging a brief glance, but then both shook their heads. It seemed like that was enough shopping for them today.

“Should we go get something to eat, then?” Matt asked, placing a hand over his stomach. There were general murmurs of agreement—I was feeling pretty hungry, myself—and we headed off in search of food.

After debating what to order and waiting in a couple of separate lines, we finally sat down with our meals in the bustling food court. Tennessee insisted on sitting between Zack and me at the table, which didn’t surprise either of us at this point, but Matt and Val still seemed amused by the action. I silently hoped that Matt wouldn’t read too much into it. We had a quick lunch together, having a tough time convincing the kids that flinging rice at each other across the table was not a good idea, and then gathered up our purchases to leave.

We called another large cab once we’d made the hike to the parking lot, and everyone made it back to the hotel in one piece. Overall, I’d say it had been a successful trip; the kids found what they wanted, no one had gotten lost, and I’d managed to call Zack by his real name the entire time and not say anything stupid.

We all got in the elevator to head up to our rooms, letting the kids press buttons for the 16th and 17th floors. Zack, Tennessee and I got off first, since Matt and Val’s suite was one floor above everyone else’s rooms. 

“We’re leaving at eleven tomorrow, right, Matt?” I asked as we walked out, turning around to face the singer. He nodded in confirmation. “Yep. Next stop’s in Miami, so we’ve got around a four-hour drive.”

“Sounds good. See you guys tomorrow, if not before then!” 

The elevator doors closed, obscuring the group from view, and Zack and I began to walk down towards our rooms. It wasn’t a very long hallway, and we came to my door first. Zack stopped beside me, which I thought was unusual, but I figured he was just making sure I got inside okay. I reached into my handbag to grab my card key, and was just about to stick it in the slot on the door and say goodbye, when Zack spoke. “So, do you have any plans for the rest of the day?”

I thought about it for a moment, taken a bit off-guard by the question, and tilted my head to the side. It wasn’t very late yet, only mid-afternoon. “Not really,” I replied, turning to look at him. “I was probably just going to do work for a while, and then watch TV until dinner.” I shrugged my shoulders noncommittally. 

There was silence for a few seconds, before my slow brain realized he might be asking because he’d thought we could do something _together_ , and I quickly added, “Why do you ask?”

_So much for not saying anything stupid in front of him._

Zack chuckled, and shrugged his own shoulders in return. He dropped his gaze down from me to look at Tennessee, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Ten had said earlier today that he wanted to watch a movie. If you’re busy it’s no problem, but I thought I’d see if you wanted to join us.”

I felt my heart beat kick up irrationally. _It’s not a date, it’s not a date, it’s NOT a date if his kid is there. He knows Tennessee likes you, and he’s just being nice._

Despite my slightly-pessimistic thoughts, I smiled at the two of them. It sounded like a much better way to spend an afternoon than what I’d been planning on, so I nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like fun!”

Zack let out a short breath. “Okay, cool. Come with us, then.” He turned and started walking further down hall, with Tennessee following close behind him.

I stared after them for a moment, surprised at the quick turn of events. _Is this really happening?_ Before I could make myself look like a fool again, I kicked my legs into gear and followed them down the hallway.


	6. Not a Movie Date

Zack and Tennessee’s door was the last one on the right, and for whatever reason, I couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous as we made our way towards it. It wasn’t that I’d never been in any of Zack’s rooms before—by this point in the tour, everyone had been in everyone’s rooms—but the only room I’d ever actually spent time in, aside from my own, was Matt and Val’s. 

I’d certainly never been invited over to anyone else’s room to do anything; it would have seemed strange, since we usually hung out as a group. I told myself that I was being dumb, that we were just going to watch a kids’ movie, but that logic wasn’t doing anything to change the fluttery feeling in my stomach.

When Zack pushed the door open and we went in, I saw that the inside looked almost exactly like my own room. There were two smaller beds in place of the one larger one I was used to, but aside from that, everything was identical. The cleaning crew must have already been through today, as both beds were immaculately made; which only made the random clothes strewn across the floor more noticeable.

“Oh, sorry about that,” Zack said, seeming to notice them at the same time I did. He quickly bent down to pick up a pair of his jeans and a few other items off the floor, shoving them into his suitcase. When he turned back around, scratching the back of his head, he looked a bit embarrassed.

The whole thing actually made me feel more at ease, and I laughed. “It’s fine, Zack. I’m not worried about it.” Boys never really grew up, did they?

Zack sent me an appreciative look, and went to pick up the remote from in front of the television. He turned it on and found the pay-per-view channel. “Okay, Tennessee, what did you want to watch?”

Tennessee clambered up onto the bed nearest the door, which I assumed was his, and turned his attention to the screen. He eventually chose one of the newer Disney movies, not one that I’d seen before, and Zack set it up to play. I’d been hovering in front of the door up to this point, not sure where I was supposed to be sitting, and Zack seemed to notice my uncertainty. “Oh, you can sit on my bed if you want, Christa.” He inclined his head towards the bed closer to the window. “Tennessee probably wants me to sit with him.” He shifted his gaze to his son, who nodded in confirmation. “Yeah!”

“Thanks, Zack,” I said, crossing over to the far side of the room as he settled in next to Tennessee on the first bed. I slipped off my shoes, not wanting to put them on his bed, and arranged the pillows with more care than was probably necessary. By the time we were all situated, the opening credits of the movie were finished, and the first scene was starting. Tennessee shushed us loudly, though no one had been talking, and Zack and I both laughed.

The movie was cute and funny, if a little bit simple, and I enjoyed watching it with the two of them. Mostly, though, I just liked to watch Zack and Tennessee interact with each other whenever I could get away with stealing glances. Tennessee was so lively and excited by everything that happened in the movie, and Zack was so glad to join in his son’s happiness that I couldn’t keep the smile off my face. Who would’ve thought that the pierced, tattooed, eye-makeup-loving, bad boy guitarist from 2005 would turn out to be the perfect dad?

On the flip side, would I have been mildly disappointed if someone had told my 20-year-old self that _this_ is what I’d be doing when I finally made it to Zacky Vengeance’s bed? Probably. But right now, I didn’t feel anything other than perfectly content.

The movie ended after about an hour and a half, and I stretched my arms above my head as the end credits started to roll. “Is there a second one?” Tennessee asked, turning to look up at his dad with wide eyes. Zack laughed, ruffling his hair. “Not yet, Ten, but they’ll probably make a new one soon.”

I giggled quietly as I got off the bed, not wanting to overstay my welcome. Besides, it was probably about time for me to get to work. “Thanks for inviting me to watch the movie with you guys. This was a lot of fun,” I said to them, interrupting Tennessee’s queries of when exactly the next movie was going to come out. Two pairs of eyes turned to look at me. 

“Sure thing, Christa,” Zack said after a second, noticing that I was heading for the door. “Do you have to go back to being a lawyer now?”

I smiled at him a bit sadly, stopping next to the bed they were seated on. “Yeah, there’s a few people that I should probably be getting back to today. Duty calls, I guess.”

Zack nodded, looking disappointed for a second, before his expression returned to normal. “Well, good luck getting everything done. And thanks for coming over.” Tennessee waved to me, and I laughed, waving back at him.

“Thanks, guys. See ya later!”

With that, I made my exit, opening the door and letting it swing shut behind me. There was one overriding thought in my brain as I walked back to my own room: _Why had Zack looked disappointed when I said I was leaving?_

My helpful brain provided the answer a few seconds later: _He wanted your help telling Tennessee that the movie’s sequel might not come out for another five years. Duh._

I nodded to myself. Yeah. That made sense. No one wants to deal with an upset kid alone, right? Right. Zack wouldn’t have looked disappointed for any other reason…

Right?

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I slid the card key back into my room’s lock and went in. We hadn’t done anything other than hang out, and I was happy with that. Reading into small interactions like this was enough to drive a person crazy, and I didn’t need to start it now.

Back in my own room, I sat down to be responsible and get some work done for the first time that day. I returned a few phone calls from clients in earlier time zones on the west coast, and sent off several emails trying to gain more information about other recent lawsuits in the music industry. When I decided to be done for the day, it was just after 8 o’clock. Seeing as no one had texted me or mentioned any dinner plans, I picked up the room service menu from my nightstand to find something to eat.

When I was done with my meal, I changed into my pajamas and sat back down on the bed, fully intending to waste time on the internet for the rest of the night. However, just as I was opening up a browser window on my laptop to find something to watch, I heard a knock at the door.

I frowned slightly as I turned to face the source of the noise. Who would be coming to see me at this time of night? I swung my legs over the side of the bed and walked over to the door quietly, standing on my toes to look through the peephole and make sure it wasn’t a random murderer come to kill me. Thankfully, the person on the other side looked less like Charles Manson and more like Valary Sanders.

I pulled the door open and started to say hello, but she beat me to it and zipped past me into the room. “Hey, Christa!” she said energetically. She plopped down on my bed with a bounce, crossing her ankles and resting her chin on her hands, looking at me expectantly.

I paused for a moment, taking in the sudden scene of her in my room. “Hey, Val… everything okay?” I asked, one eyebrow raised. We were friends of course, and I was glad to see her, but we didn’t usually just bound into each other’s rooms like this. And she seemed almost… hyper? That was definitely new.

“Oh yeah, everything’s good,” she said, waving a hand dismissively and looking around my room like she was trying to find something. Her eyes ran over the bed, the floors, and the walls. Not seeming to find what she was looking for, she shook her head slightly and returned her gaze to me, instead. “So, Christa… how’d you spend your afternoon today?” She looked like she was trying to hold in a grin.

I let my shoulders slump as I realized what this was about. I looked at her with my best deadpan expression, and explained. “After we split up from you guys, I watched a Disney movie with Tennessee and Zack in their room. I’m not sure what it is about that that you’d find so interesting.” The words came out a bit harsher than I’d intended, but they were true, nonetheless.

Val furrowed her brow a bit in response, pursing her lips. “Is that really all?” She paused for a moment, contemplating my words, then sighed. “Matt said that Zack told him you guys had watched a movie together. I guess I was hoping for different details,” she said, laughing a bit as her determined expression started to fade. “And here I thought you’d taken my advice and decided to go after Zack!”

I groaned, and walking over to sit next to her on the bed. “I’m not going to ‘go after Zack’, Val.” I said firmly. “I care about both him and Tennessee, and I have a lot of respect for him, but I’m not trying to date anyone here.” I tried my best to beat back the voice in my head that was screaming _WHY NOT?!_ , with only limited success.

“Oh come on, Christa!” she said, shoving me in the arm playfully. “I already know you have a crush on him. And it’s about time that he found someone, too! You two were adorable with Tennessee in the mall earlier today,” she gushed.

I chuckled at her comments, but my tone sounded tired when I spoke. “Thank you, Val. But I already told you, I’m happy with the way things are, and I think it would be completely unprofessional of me to try to pursue anything more. I already feel so lucky just to get to travel with you guys, and I don’t want to jeopardize anything,” I said truthfully.

Val thought on that for a moment, cocking her head to the side. “I do believe you, Christa. That you’re happy and all. But don’t you think you might be _more_ happy if you were dating a certain guitarist?” The mischievous expression had snuck back onto her face again, and now it was my turn to shove her arm.

“Hey, no need to be so forceful!” she said, laughing. “Oh, and by the way,” she added, rubbing her absolutely-not-injured arm, “I didn’t say anything, I swear, but Matt’s onto you.”

My eyes must have doubled in size. “What do you mean he’s ‘onto me’?” I asked her, suddenly feeling slightly panicked.

She shrugged her shoulders. “It was when he saw you guys in the mall, I think. He must have thought you looked like a family, too. And Matt knows you pretty well by this point… he saw the way you turned back to look at me, and I think the pieces just fell into place for him after that. He mentioned it to me earlier tonight.”

I groaned again, more loudly this time, and dropped my face into my hands. This was just fan-fucking-tasic. No one had done anything wrong, not really, but I felt like the whole “Christa has a crush on Zack” thing was starting to turn into something like a middle school rumor. It was only a matter of time before everyone knew.

“What’d you tell him?” I asked her after a minute, not looking up. I heard Val sigh, and she placed a comforting hand on my back. “I told him I thought you might like Zack, too, but not that I’d confirmed anything with you. He brought up the idea of setting you guys up all on his own,” she said.

I lifted my face out of my hands to look at her incredulously. “You’re serious?” I asked. Would Matt really do that to one of his own bandmates? Try to set him up with their _lawyer_?

She nodded, looking at me sincerely now. “Yeah. He’d never try to push anything too far, if he thought either of you wouldn’t like it, but Zack’s his best friend. He just wants him to be happy, and you, too. He thinks you could be good for each other.”

I let out a sigh, looking away from Val to stare into space in the room in front of me. This whole thing was weird. And considering that I’d never intended for anyone to find out, I’d say that it had definitely gotten out of hand. But knowing that Matt didn’t think Zack and I being together was a completely terrible idea somehow shifted things in my mind. Val was right; the two of them were best friends, and Matt should know Zack pretty well after around 20 years of friendship, right? He’d also never want anything to happen that could hurt the band, and if he thought the two of us being together could be okay, then that meant…

I snapped out of my thoughts and back to the present when I noticed Val’s hand waving in front of my face. I turned to look at her, to see that her expression had shifted to a gentle one. “What’s on your mind?”

I shook my head, not sure how to answer the question. “I don’t know, Val. I appreciate your help and advice and everything, but I think I just… need some time to think things over for myself, y’know?” She nodded, and I continued. “And I know you can’t control Matt, but could you maybe ask him not to mention this to any of the other guys for now?”

She nodded again. “I’ll tell him, Christa. I don’t think he’d ever mention to anyone else that he thought you had a crush on Zack, anyways, but I’ll say something about it to him. Just to be sure.”

“Thanks, Val.” I said. Not wanting to be overdramatic for any longer than I already had, I shook my head slightly and put a smile on my face. “So, what did you guys get up to this afternoon?”

We chatted for a little while longer, moving onto lighter topics, before Val left for the evening. She gave me a quick hug on the way out, reassuring me that everything was going to be fine, and that I could keep being their lawyer no matter what. I laughed and thanked her again, and when the door closed behind her, I was alone for the night.

I tried to go to sleep pretty much immediately after that, but I lay awake in bed for a long time, tossing and turning under the covers. It was weird, and kind of dumb, but I sort of felt like I had Matt’s blessing now. If he and Val both thought that Zack and I weren’t a completely absurd match, maybe there was some truth to it. Neither of them would ever want to risk hurting the band, so maybe this could actually be okay. 

But still—Zack was a rock star. I was a lawyer. He was, and had always been, handsome as hell. I was, at least in my own opinion, just kind of alright-looking. He had an exciting life, and travelled the world, and could have his pick among several thousand girls any night they played a show if he wanted. I had a normal life, and spent most of my days in an office, and had never been particularly popular with guys.

Most important of all, though, the fact remained that Zack didn’t seem to think of me as any more than their lawyer and a friend to his son. And no amount of Val’s scheming or Matt’s trying to set us up would change that.

_But what was that look on his face earlier?_

I rolled over in bed, not having a good answer for myself, and tried to organize my thoughts. It was still unlikely, but there was a very slim chance that Zack might possibly think of me in a non-platonic way. Maybe we weren’t a completely ridiculous match, and maybe us being together wouldn’t mess anything up with my job. I still didn’t plan on actively pursuing him, and I’d deny it up and down if any of the guys tried to ask if I had a thing for him. But… 

Hell, maybe if things with Zack somehow just fell together on their own, I wouldn’t try to fight it.

With that final, unusually-optimistic thought, a small smile snuck its way onto my face in the dark. There. I was giving myself a chance. It was a long shot, but a shot, nonetheless. With the issue settled in my mind, at least for the moment, I finally managed to fall asleep.


	7. Hard Conversations

I spent the next several days going back and forth on my feelings over the Zack situation. I knew I had a crush on him, of course, but I was trying to figure out whether there was actually a chance he had any interest in _me_. All of my uncertainty hinged on that single, tiny, fleeting expression I’d seen on his face the previous week. That look of what I’d perceived to be disappointment. The more I thought about it and tried to figure out what it meant, the less sure I was of what I even saw in the first place.

I huffed in irritation at myself as I paced up and down the bus corridor, passing from the bunks into the main living area. This wasn’t like me, to freak out over a guy. I hadn’t acted this way since high school.

_But this is Zacky Vengeance._

My brain wasn’t wrong; the crucial detail of _who_ I was thinking about went a long way towards explaining my behavior. His status as a famous client certainly didn’t make being blunt and asking about his feelings simple, though. What I’d decided the night after the movie was right; I’d just have to accept not knowing for now, and be open to something happening if it happened. But, with my hyper-analytical mind that always wanted to know things with absolute certainty, that was easier said than done.

I turned around again at the front of the bus and headed towards the back lounge. Everyone else was gone at the moment, either performing in the show or watching from backstage. I’d told them I had to stay behind to do work tonight. It wasn’t entirely untrue, but mostly I’d just wanted to be alone for a while. Pacing up and down the bus and muttering to myself with other people there probably would’ve caused some suspicion.

And speaking—er, thinking—of other people, Matt and Val hadn’t exactly been helping my inner conflict, either. I didn’t know what kinds of conversations they’d been having with each other, other than the one Val had told me about. But the knowing looks the two of them kept giving me, particularly when Zack was around, were maddening. It was only a matter of time before they somehow “accidentally” stranded Zack and I at a romantic dinner for two.

I snorted at the thought, not knowing quite what to make of their meddling. It could potentially help me if it worked, I realized, but the vague threat of having something like that happen with no warning was making me twitchy. And the others had definitely noticed at this point. Hell, Johnny and Brian had both cornered me within the past week, in two separate situations, to ask whether I was okay. I’m pretty sure they thought I was just overstressed with legal work, and since I didn’t have the guts to tell them the truth, I just let them keep believing it.

I sighed as I stopped pacing to flop down on a couch in the back. There were still two months left on the tour, but if something didn’t change, I’d go crazy long before then. I needed to ask Matt and Val to stay out of it. Yeah. That wouldn’t fix my problems entirely, but it should be enough to keep me sane. I knew Val’s intentions were good, but it seemed like nothing I said to her would make her stop looking at me like she knew all my secrets. I needed to talk to Matt. If I explained the situation to him personally, maybe he’d understand and be willing to cut me some slack.

I’d have to get him alone; there was no way I could risk anyone else overhearing the conversation. But I was already on the guys’ bus, and they would be back from the show in an hour or so. Maybe I could just wait here until they showed back up. I’d pull Matt off the bus for a few minutes, and tell him what was going on. It would probably look kind of weird to the others, but I didn’t have the time to come up with a more nuanced plan. 

With my decision made, I settled further into the leather cushions of the couch, putting my feet up for good measure. It was time for a stake-out.

~~~

I heard the guys open the door when they came back to the bus, laughing loudly at something one of them had said. I sat up and rubbed at my half-asleep eyes, trying to bring myself back to reality as I heard the door slam shut behind them. I tried to listen for a certain deep voice, hoping that Matt hadn’t chosen tonight to go back to the other bus for whatever reason.

_Brooks’s voice… Zack’s voice… Johnny’s voice… Bingo._

I stood up and walked to the entryway of the back lounge, figuring I should make my presence known. I stifled a yawn, then cleared my throat before speaking over the general chatter. “Hey, guys. How was the show?”

Johnny jumping slightly, and the guys all turned to look at me. Brian was holding a bottle of what appeared to be whiskey, about to pour it into five shot glasses set out on the kitchen counter. They seemed a bit surprised that I was here, which made sense. I’d come over early in the day to get some space away from the kids for work, but usually would’ve gone back to the other bus by now.

“Christa! It was great, the kids in the pit were really crazy tonight,” Johnny said, chuckling as he relaxed slightly. He paused for a moment, looking contemplative, before continuing. “Did you want to stay over here tonight? We have an extra bunk, and the lounge, of course…” 

“Oh, no, that’s okay!” I said, shaking my head. They were looking at me expectantly. My eyes flitted to Zack for a moment, and noticed his head was cocked to the side ever so slightly. Not wanting to get caught staring, I turned my gaze quickly to a random spot on the wall behind them. “I was just wondering… uh… Matt, could I talk to you for a minute?” 

Real subtle.

The singer nodded his head, seeming unfazed by my random request. “Sure thing. Driver’s not back yet, so we won’t be leaving for another few minutes, anyways. C’mon.” He gestured towards the front of the bus, and I followed him, squeezing past the other guys on my way. 

I felt a hand grab my wrist gently as I went by, stopping me, and looked up to see Zack. “You okay, Christa?” he asked quietly, eyebrows furrowed slightly in a look of concern. There, that officially made three of the guys who thought I was going crazy. I put on my best reassuring smile, tried to ignore the warmth I was feeling from his hand, and nodded.

“I’ll be fine, Zack. It’s nothing. Thanks for checking on me, though.”

He nodded after a moment, slowly letting go of my wrist. He didn’t look entirely convinced, but must have been able to tell that I wasn’t up for talking about it. He reluctantly turned his attention back to Brian and the shots with everyone else. They probably assumed I just had some sort of legal update.

Matt waited for me to catch up before opening the door, and we stepped out into the warm, still air of a late summer night. He walked a good ten paces from the bus door before he turned to look at me. “So, what’s up?”

I sighed, looking down and fidgeting with my hands as I tried to figure out a good way to say what I wanted to. My heart was beating more quickly than normal, and I realized I was worried about what his reaction might be. Finally, I took a deep breath and just went for it. “Matt… this feels kind of awkward for me to talk about, but I’m going to give it a try. Val had mentioned to me about a week ago that you, well… thought there might be something _going on_ between me and Zack.” I turned my eyes up from my feet to look at him, trying to gauge his reaction. It was dark out, but with lights from the venue and street lamps still on, it wasn’t difficult to see.

He chuckled after a few seconds, effectively breaking the tension I’d created, and scratched the back of his head as he realized what this was about. A grin came over his face. “Yeah, I might’ve said something like that. It was just the way you looked in the mall the other day.”

I nodded. “I figured that’s what started it. But, since then I feel like you and Val have both been giving me these… suspicious looks, whenever Zack and I are even in the same room. I’m sorry, Matt, but it’s driving me nuts, and someone else is going to notice eventually.” I crossed my arms over my chest protectively, feeling self-conscious. “Could you please stop?”

His expression turned serious now, and he nodded at me soberly. “Yeah, of course, Christa. We were just having fun, I didn’t realize it was actually bothering you. I’m sorry.” He hesitated for a moment, seeming unsure of his next move, before taking a few steps towards me and wrapping me in a bear hug.

I stiffened momentarily, before relaxing slightly in his arms. I trusted Matt, and could tell that he meant what he said. I wrapped my smaller arms around him briefly, before pulling away.

“It’s okay, Matt. I just…” Was I going to tell him the truth? To hell with it, he probably already knew. I glanced back at the bus anxiously, and seeing the windows and door closed, turned back to whisper to Matt. “I do like Zack, alright? But I like being you guys’ lawyer more. I really, _really_ don’t want him to find out. So if we could just drop it, and if you could promise not to try to set us up or anything, then… I’d really appreciate it.” I paused for a moment, and then added, “And please don’t tell any of the other guys. I never intended for anyone to find out about it. Val’s just way too perceptive,” I said, laughing softly in spite of the situation.

Matt nodded at me again, serious expression still in place. “I promise not to tell Zack or anyone else, Christa. And I won’t try to set you up. Sorry, I really didn’t realize the way it was getting to you. But, for the record... I don’t think you two dating would interfere with you being our lawyer. We’re already kind of one big family here, Christa. I don’t see any reason why that would change.” He must have seen the warning look on my face, as he added, “but I promise to be hands-off about it. I’m just saying, if something did happen that made it so you were together, I think everyone here would be fine and happy about it.”

I felt my body start to fully relax for the first time in what felt like days. He’d promised. And I trusted him. For now, that was all I needed.

“Thank you, Matt. You’re a great friend. I just care a lot about everyone here and don’t want to risk messing it up, you know? But I get what you’re saying. Whatever happens, it’s nice to know you think of me as part of the group.” I couldn’t help the smile forming on my face at my own words.

He smiled back at me. “Of course you are. Was that all you wanted to talk about?” I nodded, and he went on. “Okay then. What should I tell the others when I go back to the bus? I’m sure they’ll want to know what’s up…”

I tapped my chin thoughtfully, then snapped my fingers a second later when it came to me. “Tell them I have good reason to believe this lawsuit will be over soon. It shouldn’t drag on more than a couple of weeks after the tour, once we can get in court in Huntington Beach and present our side of things. We won’t get off entirely scot-free, but I think they’ll rule in our favor, based on evidence and rulings I’ve been finding from other related cases.” I saw his surprised look, and grinned. “And that’s the truth.”

“Christa, that’s awesome! I knew things were going well, but that’s the best news I’ve heard in a while. I’ll be sure to tell them.” He seemed genuinely excited. I was glad to be able to give him good news, after so much uncertainty in the past few months.

“Thank you, Matt. I’m going to go ahead and head back to our bus for the night, but I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”

He nodded again, raising a hand in parting. “Sounds good, Christa. See you soon.”

With that, I turned and took my leave. I walked past the guys’ bus, happy to note that the windows and door were still closed, and headed back to where I’d be sleeping for the night.


	8. Perception

After my conversation with Matt, things on the tour went mostly back to normal. He stopped looking at me like anything was unusual when Zack was around, and even Val’s looks became less frequent. Not having to worry about anyone else in the band catching their expressions came as a huge relief to me.

While my feelings for Zack never subsided, I was able to put them on the metaphorical back burner as I settled back into a routine. I did legal work during the day, wrapping up loose ends for our upcoming court appearance as well as I could, and watched the show or helped out with the kids at night. I still spent quite a lot of time with Tennessee, especially when the band had days off from shows, and even watched a couple more movies with him and Zack in their hotel rooms. It was a lot easier to just enjoy these interactions, and take them for what they were, when no one else was making a big deal out of them.

Now, it would be a lie to say I’d flipped a magical switch and stopped noticing that Zack was incredibly attractive, or talented, or caring—those things would probably never go away—but I had regained my ability to act like a normal, semi-professional human being around him. I was back in control. And, for a self-professed control freak, that felt pretty damn good.

Matt didn’t completely give up on the situation immediately, though. Every so often, after he’d seen me talking with Zack or playing with Tennessee, he’d pull me aside to remind me that it’d be okay if something happened. And while I appreciated the reassurance, I still had no plans to pursue the guitarist. I was firmly in camp “Assume-that-it’s-not-gonna-happen-unless-he-makes-a-move-first.”

And so we rolled on down the highways, going from city to city and state to state, checking shows off the list and blitzing through the second half of the tour. It was when we only had a couple of weeks left on the road that things really got interesting again.

I was on the bus with Val and the boys one night, trying to help get everyone ready for bedtime. It was already nine o’clock, and the band was off playing a show. Val was tucking River in, and I was trying to do the same with Tennessee, but was being met with some resistance.

“Will Dad be able to read to me tonight?” he asked, looking up at me curiously. I was crouched next to his bed, blankets in my hands, and shook my head apologetically.

“Not tonight, buddy. I’m sorry. He’s at work, and he won’t be back until really late.”

Tennessee looked sad for a moment, then perked back up, sitting up in bed. “I’m not sleepy. We can wait for him!”

I laughed softly, and shook my head again. “I don’t think so, bud. Your dad’s not gonna be happy if you stay up so late. That’s way past your normal bedtime.” It was true that the kids stayed up to see the show on some nights, but they always ended up tired and cranky the next day. For the sake of all the adults on tour, we stuck to an earlier bedtime whenever possible.

Tennessee pounded on the sheets with his tiny hands. “But I’m not sleepy!” he insisted. “I can’t go to sleep. Can we stay up longer? _Pleeeease_?”

I looked him in the eyes, and saw a surprising amount of determination there. Finally, I relented. “Okay, we can stay up for now. But if you start getting sleepy, you have to tell me. Promise?”

The little boy nodded happily. “Promise!”

I chuckled. “Alright, come on, then.” I helped him pull back the covers and get down from the bunk, and we went back into the bus’s main living area. I had no intention of actually letting Tennessee stay up very late, but he seemed to be feeling persistent that night. After a half hour of reading or games, I figured, he should be yawning and ready to go back to bed. 

I said goodnight to Val and her kids, and she shut the door to the bunk area so that we wouldn’t keep them up. “We have to be quiet now, okay?” I whispered to Tennessee, pointing to the door. “Aunt Val, River, and Cash are all sleeping. We don’t want to wake them up.”

Tennessee pretended to zip his lips and throw a key over his shoulder. “Okay!” he stage-whispered. I smiled. It wasn’t the most quiet voice, but it would work for now.

Unfortunately, my plan of having Tennessee to bed by nine-thirty didn’t work at all. I thought putting together the same puzzles we’d already done a dozen times would surely put him to sleep, but I was wrong. After that, I thought that reading to him would definitely do the trick, but he seemed set on staying awake. His eyes were wide open, and he was alert the whole time. Heck, _I_ even started getting sleepy after a little while, but he’d nudge me in the arm every so often and ask me to read the next page, and I’d go along with it.

I did try to tell him a couple times that we should probably go to bed soon, but he’d just tell me again that he wasn’t sleepy. And I didn’t have the heart to forcibly send him to his bunk; you can’t go back on what you said to a little kid, right?

We went on this way for a couple of hours. I was reading Polar Bear Parade, my eyelids drooping, when we suddenly heard a soft knock at the door. I trailed off in the middle of my sentence and looked up, gaze turning towards the front of the bus. Tennessee immediately became excited, looking from the direction of the door to me and back again. 

The door was pulled opened slowly and quietly, and a moment later, Zack’s head appeared around the corner. He looked curious at first, and then a bit confused. “Tennessee? What’re you still doing up, kiddo?”

“Dad!” Tennessee exclaimed, stage-whispering loudly again. He scooted over even closer to me on the couch, beckoning Zack over with his arm. The guitarist chuckled, walking onto the bus and shutting the door behind him. He was shaking his head, but came over and sat on the couch on the opposite side of Tennessee. 

“I saw the light was still on over here and decided to come investigate. What’re you still doing awake, Ten?” he asked again, ruffling his son’s hair. I opened my mouth to apologize for letting him be up so late, but Tennessee beat me to the explanation.

“Chrissie said I could stay up and wait for you tonight as long as I wasn’t sleepy!” he said, smiling back at me briefly before returning his focus to Zack. “I wanted you to read to me tonight, so I stayed awake!”

Zack chuckled slightly, looking up at me with one eyebrow raised as if to confirm the story, and I nodded. “I thought he would’ve gotten sleepy ages ago, to be honest. But he’s more awake than I am, so here we are!” I shifted my focus to Tennessee. “Do you want your dad to finish reading the story, and then we can all get to bed?” I didn’t mean to pass the task off to Zack, but considering this is what Tennessee had been waiting for all night, it seemed like it was probably the only way to get him to go to sleep.

Tennessee shook his head, much to my confusion, before proclaiming, “I want you both to read it to me!” He looked between the two of us expectantly.

Zack met my eyes again. “You okay with staying up for a few more minutes?”

I nodded. I was sleepy, yes, but I could make it through a bit more reading for these two. I shifted the book in my hands so that it was resting on Tennessee’s lap, where Zack and I could both see it. “Okay, now where were we…”

I found my spot on the page and read the last few sentences. Tennessee flipped the page, and then it was Zack’s turn. He read the contents of that page, and we continued trading off throughout the book. I couldn’t help but feel like this sort of thing normally only happened between two parents and their child, but I did my best to ignore the thought.

Before too long, Zack had read the last page, and Tennessee closed the book’s back cover. “Hooray!” he said, earning shushes from Zack and I. “Don’t forget, other people are asleep on the bus,” I reminded him softly.

He nodded in acknowledgement, but didn’t seem concerned about it. In fact, his brow furrowed and he looked back and forth between me and Zack, like he was trying to figure something else out. “What’s on your mind, Ten?” Zack prompted, taking the book and setting it back on a side table with the others.

“Hmmm,” Tennessee said thoughtfully, scrunching his face up like he was in deep thought. His expression lit up again suddenly, as if he’d come up with a brilliant solution to a problem. He turned to look at Zack, and said matter-of-factly, “I think that you and Chrissie should get married.”

And just like that, I was choking on my non-existent drink. Could I have possibly heard him correctly? What on earth would make him say that? And what, pray tell, was I supposed to do in response? I could feel my face heating up as I continued through my coughing fit, unsure of what to do or even where to look, but my gaze eventually settled on Zack. He wasn’t literally choking the same way that I was, but he didn’t seem much more prepared to handle the situation.

“O-Oh,” he started, looking from me to Tennessee with a blank, shocked expression. “Well… that’s not really how it works, bud.”

Tennessee frowned again. “Whaddaya mean? People get married when they love each other.”

My face felt like it was on fire. I’d managed to stop coughing, but I’d swapped it for a stunned silence that wasn’t any more helpful to the situation. I risked another look at Zack, whose seemed to be getting a little more flustered. He opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. “We’re not...” He looked back up at me, then to his son. “It’s...” He seemed to be trying to choose his words carefully. Finally, he moved into placating mode instead of explaining mode. “Well, you never know what might happen. But people don’t just decide to get married all in a day, Tennessee. It takes a long time.”

The boy seemed to be thinking of a reply, one finger resting on his chin, but Zack beat him to it. “Let’s get you to bed, okay? It’s way past your bedtime.” 

Tennessee frowned again, but Zack gave him a warning look that effectively stopped his protests. “Okay,” he said, a slightly grumbly tone in his voice as he slid off the couch. He walked towards the bunks, before turning back to me to wave briefly. “Goodnight, Chrissie!”

I cleared my throat before answering him. “Goodnight, buddy. Sweet dreams!” I felt the weight on the couch shift again as Zack got up to follow his son, avoiding looking in my direction as he passed.

The two of them headed into the bunk area, and Zack closed the door softly behind them so that he could put his son to bed. I wasn’t sure what to do at this point; my first instinct was to bolt from the bus so I’d be gone when Zack came back and I wouldn’t have to see him again, but considering that I slept here, that probably wouldn’t work out. Instead, I stayed put on the couch and waited for his inevitable return. 

My mind was racing as I tried to process what had just happened. Where had Tennessee gotten the idea that we were in love? Or that we should be getting married? Was I really that obvious that even a four-year-old kid could tell I had feelings for the guitarist?

...Or, did he think that Zack liked me for some reason? The two of them spent a good amount of time alone together. Had Zack said something to make him think that we should be a couple?

I shook my head as I attempted to clear my thoughts. No, that was silly. He surely wasn’t that perceptive. Tennessee probably just liked me and wanted me to be closer to his family. Which in itself was a big compliment, but probably not anything to dwell on too much.

_You’d be his stepmom. It’s_ kind _of like being his mom_ —

I shut my brain off again, not letting myself entertain the idea. No, I was only friends with Tennessee, and I was only friends with Zack. And after this tour was over, we’d be together less often and Tennessee would probably forget all about me—

My thoughts were interrupted yet again when I heard the door to the bunks open. I snapped to attention and looked towards it. Zack backed out of the darkened room slowly and closed the door, before finally turning to face me.

His expression was blank as he gave a short laugh, still not seeming sure what to say. He sat back down on the other end of the couch and clasped his hands between his knees. I could feel my heart rate pick up again.

Zack was the first to speak. “Hey, I’m sorry about… that. He gets excited about things sometimes.” 

He seemed to be trying to play it off, so I figured that I would, too. I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s okay. We’ve been spending a lot of time together recently. Guess it just got in his head, somehow.”

Zack nodded at me gratefully. “Yeah, I guess so. Thanks again for reading to him so often, and for everything else.” He was looking at me intently with those gorgeous green eyes.

“Of course! We’ve had a good time together. And I’m glad to help.” I was smiling now, probably with another blush on my face. I  really was happy I could be useful beyond working as their lawyer, but my nerves were still wracked from what Tennessee had said.

Zack nodded, expression thoughtful now. He was quiet for a minute before he spoke, seeming almost hesitant, like he was unsure of his next words. “Yeah, he really likes you... and he’s not the only one.”

My heart skipped a beat once I’d registered what he said. I looked directly at him. “What do you mean?” The question came out as a whisper, and not just because I was trying to be quiet for the people asleep. I was as hopeful as I dared to be, but there was no way...

Zack bit his lower lip as he held my gaze. “Tennessee wasn’t far off with what he said earlier. I really care about you, Christa.”

I was shocked by the admission, even more so than I had been by Tennessee’s words. Was he being serious? The expression on his face said that he was, but it seemed crazy.

“I-I... Zack... really?” I stuttered eloquently.

He chuckled slightly, but his sober expression remained. “Yeah, really. You’ve always been a great partner to us. But since this tour started and we’ve all been on the road, we’ve gotten to know each other better, and...” he shrugged, trailing off before starting again. “You get along well with everyone here. Tennessee thinks you’re the best. And I didn’t mean for it to happen, but I guess I got attached, too.” He shook his head, but there was a smile on his face now. “Dang kid must’ve picked up on how much I was talking about you. He knows I don’t invite anyone over to do things with the two of us so often. He had me all figured out.”

My heart rate hadn’t slowed down one bit during his explanation. It made Tennessee’s behavior from earlier make more sense, but that was hardly enough to calm me down. Zack was waiting patiently, eyes still on me, and I realized I should answer him.

“Zack…” I started quietly, before taking a deep breath to steady myself. “You’re not the only one who’s gotten attached. I like you, so much, but I just never thought…” I went quiet as I shook my head, a smile growing over my face. I could hardly believe we were having this conversation.

Zack let out a sigh of what I think was relief, moving closer to me on the couch until he was sitting right next to me. I dropped my eyes to my lap, nerves getting the better of me, until he poked me in the arm. “Hey,” he said, prompting me to look back up at him. He’d never been quite this close before, and he was smiling. “Do you want to give this a try? I know we’ve both got our own lives, and there’d be some things to work out. But I think we could do it, if you want to.”

I was still nervous. I didn’t know what the rest of the band would think, and I didn’t know what this would mean for my job. But I did know that I wanted this more than anything else in the world. I finally let go of my doubts, grinned back at him, and nodded. “Hell yeah. Let’s give it a shot.”

Zack returned my expression, lifting one hand to cup the side of my face affectionately. I leaned into the touch, thrilled to finally be close to him in this way. His face became serious again a moment later as he let his hand linger, slowly leaning his face towards mine. His focus moved between my eyes and my lips, almost as if asking permission, and I nodded at him again. I lifted my chin up to help close the gap between us, and met his lips in a sweet kiss.

Despite being a rockstar, who I'd assumed was used to taking whatever he wanted, Zack’s kiss was exceedingly gentle. His lips moved slowly over my own as he stroked his thumb across my cheek. After a moment’s hesitation, I reached up and wrapped my arms around his neck, bringing us closer together.

He broke the kiss before long, leaning back just far enough to look me in the eyes. “Okay?” he asked softly. I could feel his warm breath against my lips. Unable to hold his gaze, I moved my face to nuzzle against his neck, instead, and nodded. “More than okay.”

He made a contented sound, and wrapped his arms around my back and under my knees, moving my legs to lay across his own. I was practically sitting in his lap at this point, and felt myself blush again. I met his eyes once more as he wrapped both arms around my middle to hold me close. He leaned down to give me another quick kiss.

Once we’d separated, and were both grinning at each other like fools, he spoke again. “So, we have the next few days off. Do you maybe want to go and get dinner tomorrow night?”

My smile grew even bigger, if that was possible, and I nodded at him. “I’d love to, Zack.”

His expression became teasing. “You can call me Zacky, if you want to.”

I laughed then, pushing him on the chest as he referenced my previous mistake. “That was one time!”

He grinned, grabbing both of my hands to keep me from pushing him more and, once he was satisfied that he was safe, smirked at me triumphantly. “You’re still too fun to mess with.”

I stuck my tongue out at him and he laughed, shaking his head, before leaning forward to kiss me again.


	9. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to anyone who's read this far and made it to the end of the story! Writing it has been a blast, and I hope you've enjoyed reading it, too. If you have a minute, please let me know what you thought of it in the comments. Without further ado, and for the last time, here's Zacky and the Lawyer!

Zack and I did, in fact, go to dinner the next night, and we had a wonderful time together. Sneaking out of the hotel without the rest of the group finding out proved to be impossible, though. By the time we left that evening, every single one of them knew what was going on, and teased us thoroughly about it.

Matt and Val, in particular, enjoyed poking fun at me. “After all that protesting, you went and got together anyway, huh?” Val had said, that signature knowing smirk back on her face permanently. Matt had just laughed. “I’m glad you two finally figured it out. It was driving me crazy watching you guys interact and waiting for something to happen!”

And apparently, they hadn’t been the only two who were suspicious. As Johnny put it, “I was trying to stay out of your business and everything, Christa, but I _knew_ you guys had a thing for each other.” Brian and Brooks had nodded sagely in agreement.

We went ahead and told Tennessee what was going on, too, explaining things in the simplest terms we could. “We’re not getting married right now, Ten…” Zack trailed off, moving his eyes to mine and grabbing my hand, giving it a squeeze. “But, someday, we might.” Tennessee had been thrilled.

The tour wrapped up soon after, and we all went back home to sunny California. We had a couple of weeks to prepare for the court date, which was a stressful time filled with long nights and crises of confidence, but we pulled through. When the day came, I fought the prosecution as well as I could, presenting our side to the judge with all five of the guys seated next to me. Ultimately, he ruled in our favor. The night after that victory was the hardest I’d ever seen the guys party.

They decided to take a short break before writing the next record, once things had settled down, but we all knew they wouldn’t stay out of the studio for long. Even after the tour and court case had ended, we all still spent a lot of time together, usually at Matt and Val’s house. It felt great to be included in their group of friends, even when I wasn’t doing legal work for them.

Of course, I spent a lot of time visiting Zack and Tennessee at their house, too. We’d talked about moving in together almost immediately, but decided to take things slow and give it a little bit of time first. My apartment lease would be up in a few months, and we’d see how things were going then. Tennessee asked me every time he saw me when I was coming to live with them “for good.” And considering that I was falling more in love with Zack every time I saw him, and that he seemed to feel the same way about me, it was almost certain to happen. 

Reconciling our lives wouldn’t be easy, but it was going better than I could have hoped. Considering that I’d made quite a name for myself in entertainment law at this point, moving from working at the firm to being an independent consultant should be a breeze. I’d be able to work from my computer all the time, which meant I’d be able to go with the guys on their next tour, no matter where in the world it took them.

Dating a rockstar would present its own set of challenges, but so far, Zack and I had been able to keep our relationship a secret from all but our closest friends. I was worried that, when the fans found out the last eligible bachelor in Avenged Sevenfold had been taken, they’d immediately hate me. Zack, however, saw it a different way:

“You’re the missing link that finally completes our group, Christa. I’m sure they’re going to love you.”

_FIN_


End file.
